Recapping the Academy February webinars: Insights from Earth observation and open data maturity across Europe
Learn more on the impact of Earth observation data and reporting on member states and their data portals
February has now come to an end, making it a good moment to look back at the webinars hosted this month by the European Data Portal. Throughout February, two webinars brought together experts, policymakers and data practitioners to discuss how European data is collected, shared and reused. The sessions took place on 13 February, focusing on Earth observation, and 27 February, dedicated to the results of the Open Data Maturity (ODM) 2025 report.
The first webinar, held on 13 February, explored the topic of Earth observation. Three expert speakers were invited to share their knowledge. Thore Fechner, Lead of the Open Data and Copernicus team at con.terra, opened the session with an introduction to Earth observation data. He explained what this type of data is, how it is collected, what it can be used for, and where it can be found on the European Data Portal. Building on this foundation, Daniel Drăghicescu, Policy Officer at the European Commission, introduced Destination Earth, outlining its purpose, key stakeholders and implementation. The webinar concluded with a deep dive by Michael Schick from EUMETSAT, who explained digital twins, platform principles, current service offerings and the role of artificial intelligence.
The second webinar, hosted on 27 February, focused on the Open Data Maturity 2025 report. Arman Behrooz, co-author of the report, opened the session with an overview of the report, explaining its purpose, methodology and the main findings of this year’s edition. This was followed by country presentations from Spain and France. Alicia Nieto Ramos, representing Spain, shared insights into the country’s ODM results, highlighting ongoing initiatives as well as key strengths and challenges. The French perspective was presented by Thanh Ha Le, Data Product Portfolio Manager at data.gouv.fr, who structured her presentation around four dimensions: policy, portal, data quality and impact, illustrating each with concrete examples from current practice.
Both webinars concluded with interactive Q&A sessions, allowing participants to engage directly with the speakers. Interested in learning more? The recordings and presentation slides from both the Earth observation and ODM 2025 webinars are now available on the European Data Portal. Explore the materials and stay tuned for upcoming webinars and events within the European open data community!
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