A workshop on the socio-economic benefits of GEO-GEOSS is planned for July 11-13 at the Joint Research Center in Ispra Italy. The purpose of the workshop is to identify a program of activities to undertake during 2011-15 to support the development of capabilities internationally to determine, quantify and document, the socioeconomic benefits from Earth observations and their use, including the benefits that can and will be achieved by GEO and other international bodies.

Such program of activities may include the consolidation of dispersed bodies of literature relevant to the assessment of impacts and benefits of geographic information/earth observation, the evaluation of different methodologies appropriate to undertake such assessments, the gathering of evidence of impacts/benefits in different user communities and societal benefits areas, and outreach activities to develop shared understanding across disciplinary boundaries on value and methods of assessment.

The number of workshop participants is expected to be 25 with focus on practitioners of benefit/impact assessments and related fields. Experts in physical, social and economic sciences are invited to attend. The workshop is being organized by JRC, NASA, IIASA and IEEE. Please contact Dr. Max Craglia (massimo.craglia@jrc.ec.europa.eu), Dr. Jay Pearlman (jay.pearlman@ieee.org), Dr. Steffen Fritz (fritz@iiasa.ac.at) or Dr. Lawrence Friedl (lfriedl@nasa.gov) for further information. If you are interested in attending, please forward an expression of interest via email to the organizers and include your area of expertise and a CV. The deadline for letters of interest is June 21, 2011.