Consortium Of Partners Research Articles

Reducing missed opportunities for vaccination in selected provinces of Mozambique: A study protocol.

Background: A missed opportunity for vaccination (MOV) refers to any contact with health services by an individual who is eligible for vaccination, which does not result in the person receiving the vaccine doses for which he or she is eligible. A consortium of partners, including VillageReach, the Ministry of Health in Mozambique and the World Health Organization, will implement a strategy to reduce MOV in Mozambique. The strategy involves demonstrating the magnitude of missed opportunities and their causes, and exploring tailored health system interventions to reduce them, with the aim of increasing vaccination coverage and timeliness of vaccinations. Methods: A mixed-methods approach will incorporate both quantitative and qualitative tools. The assessment will target caregivers of children between the ages of 0-23 months who attend a health facility in the selected districts on the day of the assessment. Caregivers who are at least 18 years old will be eligible for inclusion. Another component of the assessment will target all health workers in the selected health facilities on the day of the assessment. A sample of 30 health facilities in different regions of the country will be assessed, with a target sample size of 600 caregiver exit interviews, 300 health worker interviews and focus group discussions with both caregivers and health workers. Data collection will commence late 2017, and the data will be electronically captured, managed and analyzed. Thematic analysis of data from the qualitative aspects of the assessment will be conducted, presenting the scope of interviews, representative verbatim quotes and key conclusions. Conclusions: A concerted effort to reduce or eliminate MOV could increase vaccine coverage by up to 30% and may contribute to wider improvements in efficiencies of service delivery beyond the immunization program. In addition, the findings could contribute to a better understanding of MOV in similar settings.

From Connected Care to Integrated Care – A work in Progress

One of the most problematic interfaces is the hospital-community care interface.[1] Older persons discharged from acute care hospitals are at risk of 30-day hospital readmission and death.[2] purports to address the problem, although, to date, a comprehensive solution has not yet been achieved.[3] A new H2020 project – aims to develop and evaluate a new organisational model for Integrated Care for complex patients enabled by ICT tools. Some of the building blocks for the new integrated care model are in advanced stages of implementation by some of the consortium partners. An example of this is Assuta Medical Centers and its mother organization, Maccabi Healthcare Services (Israel): Maccabi has an integrated community care system with a central Electronic Medical Record, used by all healthcare professionals, with patients' access to their record through a patient portal. The clinical decision support system facilitates integration among providers in the community and their patients. Assuta's hospital network has a central EMR and there is two-way access to patient records between community and hospital In May 2015, Maccabi implemented a nationwide Continuity of Care program that provides integrated follow up care for all complex patients discharged from the hospital, supported by a digital platform that defines each provider’s tasks and enables follow up to assure that tasks are completed through seamless interface with the patient’s EMR. A preliminary evaluation based on the first 6 months of operation (July-December 2015) found that: Patients who received integrated care had a 4% reduction in hospital readmissions compared with those who did not receive coordinated care. There was a reduction in hospital care costs of 32% for Maccabi members identified as complex co-morbid patients due to the intensity of the intervention in the community i.e. homecare visits, or visits to primary care Patients expressed high levels of satisfaction with their care. Assuta is building an integrated health and care system in Ashdod in partnership with Maccabi and the Municipality that will begin in Spring, 2017, with dedicated Care Managers responsible for integrating the care for the patient in the hospital, and with community healthcare services and the Municipality's Social Services. As consortium partners in CONNECARE, the Assuta/Maccabi processes will be supported by the CONNECARE model for complex patients with additional digital tools including a platform for care coordination and a Self-Management System for patients and carers. The CONNECARE digital platform will be ready for implementation by Autumn 2017, coinciding with the implementation of the Assuta Ashdod Integrated care system. The CONNECARE pilots will enable a robust evaluation of this integrated care model, not only in Israel but in Spain and the Netherlands, thus providing a foundation for a potentially transferable solution.

Rationale of the FIBROTARGETS study designed to identify novel biomarkers of myocardial fibrosis.

AimsMyocardial fibrosis alters the cardiac architecture favouring the development of cardiac dysfunction, including arrhythmias and heart failure. Reducing myocardial fibrosis may improve outcomes through the targeted diagnosis and treatment of emerging fibrotic pathways. The European‐Commission‐funded ‘FIBROTARGETS’ is a multinational academic and industrial consortium with the main aims of (i) characterizing novel key mechanistic pathways involved in the metabolism of fibrillary collagen that may serve as biotargets, (ii) evaluating the potential anti‐fibrotic properties of novel or repurposed molecules interfering with the newly identified biotargets, and (iii) characterizing bioprofiles based on distinct mechanistic phenotypes involving the aforementioned biotargets. These pathways will be explored by performing a systematic and collaborative search for mechanisms and targets of myocardial fibrosis. These mechanisms will then be translated into individualized diagnostic tools and specific therapeutic pharmacological options for heart failure.Methods and resultsThe FIBROTARGETS consortium has merged data from 12 patient cohorts in a common database available to individual consortium partners. The database consists of >12 000 patients with a large spectrum of cardiovascular clinical phenotypes. It integrates community‐based population cohorts, cardiovascular risk cohorts, and heart failure cohorts.ConclusionsThe FIBROTARGETS biomarker programme is aimed at exploring fibrotic pathways allowing the bioprofiling of patients into specific ‘fibrotic’ phenotypes and identifying new therapeutic targets that will potentially enable the development of novel and tailored anti‐fibrotic therapies for heart failure.

Turkmenistan and the virtual politics of Eurasian energy: the case of the TAPI pipeline project

ABSTRACTIn December 2015, leaders from Central and South Asia took part in the ground-breaking ceremony for the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) natural gas pipeline project. Sixteen months later, a confusing information flow continues to obfuscate external assessments of the project’s development: official rhetoric notwithstanding, there is no certainty on the details of project financing, while the pipeline route has yet to be determined. To illuminate this obscure implementation path, this article regards TAPI as a virtual pipeline, an infrastructure project that wields invaluable influence only when it is employed as a foreign policy tool or permeates domestic discourses of progress framed by the elites of the four consortium partners. The constituent elements of TAPI virtuality are discussed here through a dedicated focus on the process of energy policy-making of Turkmenistan – the sole supplier of gas for the pipeline project and the consortium’s key stakeholder.

TOWARDS INNOVATIVE GEOSPATIAL TOOLS FOR FIT-FOR-PURPOSE LAND RIGHTS MAPPING

Abstract. In large parts of sub Saharan Africa it remains an ongoing challenging to map millions of unrecognized land rights. Existing approaches for recognizing these rights have proven inappropriate in many cases. A new generation of tools needs to be developed to support faster, cheaper, easier, and more responsible land rights mapping. This is the main goal of its4land, an European Commission Horizon 2020 project that aims to develop innovative tools inspired by the continuum of land rights, fit-for-purpose land administration, and cadastral intelligence. its4land is using strategic collaboration between the EU and East Africa to deliver innovative, scalable, and transferrable ICT solutions. The innovation process incorporates a broad range of stakeholders and emergent geospatial technologies, including smart sketchmaps, UAVs, automated feature extraction, as well as geocloud services. The aim is to combine innovative technologies, capture the specific needs, market opportunities and readiness of end-users in the domain of land tenure information recording in Eastern Africa. The project consists of a four year work plan, € 3.9M funding, and eight consortium partners collaborating with stakeholders from six case study locations in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Rwanda. The major tasks include tool development, prototyping, and demonstration for local, national, regional, and international interest groups. The case locations cover different land uses such as: urban, peri-urban, rural smallholder, and (former) pastoralist. This paper describes the project’s activities within the first 18 months and covers barriers discovered, lessons learned and results achieved.

Family Medicine in Ethiopia: Lessons from a Global Collaboration.

Building the capacity of local health systems to provide high-quality, self-sustaining medical education and health care is the central purpose for many global health partnerships (GHPs). Since 2001, our global partner consortium collaborated to establish Family Medicine in Ethiopia; the first Ethiopian family physicians graduated in February 2016. The authors, representing the primary Ethiopian, Canadian, and American partners in the GHP, identified obstacles, accomplishments, opportunities, errors, and observations from the years preceding residency launch and the first 3 years of the residency. Common themes were identified through personal reflection and presented as lessons to guide future GHPs. LESSON 1: Promote Family Medicine as a distinct specialty. LESSON 2: Avoid gaps, conflict, and redundancy in partner priorities and activities. LESSON 3: Building relationships takes time and shared experiences. LESSON 4: Communicate frequently to create opportunities for success. LESSON 5: Engage local leaders to build sustainable, long-lasting programs from the beginning of the partnership. GHPs can benefit individual participants, their organizations, and their communities served. Engaging with numerous partners may also result in challenges-conflicting expectations, misinterpretations, and duplication or gaps in efforts. The lessons discussed in this article may be used to inform GHP planning and interactions to maximize benefits and minimize mishaps.

Towards Insect Digital Collections and Data Publishing: A journey for the GBIF-funded African Insect Atlas Collaborative Project

Museums from six African countries (Botswana, Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Madagascar, Mozambique), with support from the California Academy of Sciences, are currently collaborating on the GBIF funded project: African Insect Atlas: unleashing the potential of insects in conservation and sustainability research in Africa (BID-AF2015-0134-REG). This project was initiated to move biodiversity knowledge out of insect collections into the hands of a new generation of global biodiversity researchers interested in direct outcomes. The project acknowledges that insects are the glue that hold ecosystems together, and are ideal organisms for climate change biology, conservation planning, mapping local and regional patterns of diversity, and monitoring threats to ecosystem services and natural capital, thereby addressing the Sustainable Development Goal #15, 'Life on Land (http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals.html). The consortium partners have, since June 2016, embarked on a journey to learn digitization techniques and have successfully digitized 50% of the project goals. The targeted insect orders include Coleoptera, Odonata, Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera and Hymenoptera. The data being mobilized includes specimen and species data, habitat information as well as identification of possible threats such as deforestation. These are being captured into a standardized platform using Darwin Core. Elaborate data cleaning is being carried out using tools in OPEN Refine (http://openrefine.org) and Microsoft Excel 2010. The captured data is also being geo-referenced using appropriate software such as GEOLocate (http://www.museum.tulane.edu/geolocate) and GEO-Calculator (http://manisnet.org/gci2.html). The specimen occurrence records will be made available on the GBIF platform and will continuously be updated as more information becomes available. Any specimen images taken will also be linked to the database (SPECIFY and Microsoft Excel). Assessments will be carried out to establish which species are native and endemic as well as to establish their conservation status. Simplified image catalogues, checklists, distribution and habitat maps in suitable formats will also be produced to help scientists and other users to identify these species during their research and in the field.

Developing a comprehensive response for treatment of children under 6\xa0years of age with schistosomiasis: research and development of a pediatric formulation of praziquantel

Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease caused by blood flukes. The disease is caused by an inflammatory reaction to parasite eggs retained in the liver, bladder and reproductive organs. According to 2017 World Health Organization (WHO) estimates 220 million people are potentially infected, from which probably 10% are children under 6 years of age. The regular treatment approach of a single, oral dose of 40 mg/kg body weight with praziquantel however, is difficult for children under the age of 6, leaving them without a treatment option.In order to address this important gap in treatment target populations, an international public-private partnership that works on a not-for-profit basis in the field of drug research and development for schistosomiasis was established in 2012. This is called the Pediatric Praziquantel Consortium. Its mission was and continues to be to develop, register and provide access to a suitable pediatric praziquantel formulation for treating schistosomiasis in preschool-age children (3–6 months up to 6 years).The Target Product Profile for the pediatric formulation of praziquantel that would be suitable to treat children as young as 3–6 months was then defined by a group of experts, including members from the Pediatric Praziquantel Consortium partner organizations as well as experts from WHO (as observer) and schistosomiasis endemic countries.The development of the drug is ongoing and the Pediatric Praziquantel Consortium aims to submit the regulatory dossier for marketing approval in endemic countries and WHO prequalification in 2018/19 with approval and product launch for schistosomiasis pediatric case management in key endemic countries in 2019. Ultimately, the goal is for the product to be considered for a large-scale mass distribution program by 2022.

The Coronal Solar Magnetism Observatory

AbstractThe Coronal Solar Magnetism Observatory (CoSMO) is a proposed new facility led by the High Altitude Observatory and a consortium of partners to measure magnetic field and plasma properties in a large (one degree) field of view extending down to the inner parts of the solar corona. CoSMO is intended as a research facility that will advance the understanding and prediction of space weather. The instrumentation elements of CoSMO are: a white-light coronagraph (KCor), already operational at the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory (MLSO); the Chromosphere and Prominence Magnetometer (ChroMag), due for deployment to MLSO next year; and the CoSMO Large Coronagraph (LC) which has completed Preliminary Design Review.

A RAPID SEROLOGICAL TRIAGE TEST FOR DETECTING ACTIVE TUBERCULOSIS

BackgroundA rapid screening test for active tuberculosis (TB) will reduce diagnostic delay and expedite referral for confirmatory testing and treatment. Antigen detection tests, which may utilise a rapid lateral flow...

Diagnosis and Treatment of Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood.

The diagnosis and treatment of patients with Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood (AHC) and related disorders should be provided by a multidisciplinary team experienced with the spectrum of presentations of this disease, with its related disorders, with its complex and fluctuating manifestations, and with cutting edge advances occurring in the field. Involvement in research to advance the understanding of this disease and partnership with international collaborators and family organizations are also important. An example of such an approach is that of The Duke AHC and Related Disorders Multi-Disciplinary Clinic and Program, which, in partnership with the Cure AHC Foundation, has developed and applied this approach to patients seen since early 2013. The program provides comprehensive care and education directly to AHC patients and their families and collaborates with referring physicians on the care of patients with AHC whether evaluated at Duke clinics or not. It also is involved in clinical and basic research and in collaborations with other International AHC Research Consortium (IAHCRC) partners. The clinic is staffed with physicians and experts from Neurology, Cardiology, Child Behavioral Health, Medical Genetics, Neurodevelopment, Neuropsychology, Nursing, Physical and Occupational Therapies, Psychiatry, Sleep Medicine, and Speech/Language Pathology. Patients are seen either for full comprehensive evaluations that last several days or for targeted evaluations with one or few appointments.

Leading the way: the integral role of local government within a multisector partnership delivering a large infrastructure project in an Australian growth region

ABSTRACTMultisectoral partnerships with local government have emerged as a strategy for solving ‘wicked’ problems in communities, although research about these types of public–private partnerships is limited. Available evidence suggests that differentials in power and status, value bases and perspectives on priorities have been problematic in partnership building with community. This paper examines the role of local government as the funded, lead organisation, in a public–private partnership for planning, designing and constructing a business accelerator in one of Australia’s growth regions. Partnership scope, role and outcomes were measured against a conceptual framework mapping success indicators. Findings show core principles for successful partnership were achieved and supported by the role, capacity and commitment of local government to forming strong working relationships with consortium partners. Relationship building and commitment to collective project outcomes were pivotal to success. Further research is needed to assess whether emerging trends hold and consolidate over time.

Review of intelligent transport solutions in Latvia

Abstract The goal of the following paper is to make a review of existing intelligent transport solutions in Latvia. The results of the review were part of the RITS-NET project, implemented in frame of INTERREG IVC programme by consortium of partners from 9 EU countries, including Latvia. The project aims at enhancing regional sustainable transport policies via an increased knowledge and understanding of the full potential of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) solutions and ways to deploy them. To reach the goal the state-of-the-art of intelligent transport solutions in Latvia was completed, taking into account following subtopics: Emergency Management and Incident Services; ITS for Traffic Management and Mobility; Parking and Automatic Payment; ITS for Public Transport Management; Fleet Management and Freight. On each subtopic the careful review of existing solutions were completed and described.

Use of North American Breeding Bird Survey data in avian conservation assessments

ABSTRACT Conservation resources are limited, and prioritizing species based on their relative vulnerability and risk of extinction is a fundamental component of conservation planning. In North America, the conservation consortium Partners in Flight (PIF) has developed and implemented a data-driven species assessment process, at global and regional scales, based on quantitative vulnerability criteria. This species assessment process has formed the biological basis for PIF's continental and regional planning and has informed the ranking and legal listing of bird species for conservation protection by state, provincial, and national agencies in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. Because of its long time series, extensive geographic and species coverage, standardized survey methods, and prompt availability of results, the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) has been an invaluable source of data, allowing PIF to assign objective vulnerability scores calibrated across more than 460 landbird species. BBS data h...

Kształtowanie postaw przedsiębiorczych z uwzględnieniem zasad ekorozwoju wśród uczniów z wykorzystaniem gry PowerPlayer wypracowanej w ramach projektu SUSEN

Przedsiębiorczość w europejskim systemie edukacji jest postrzegana jako kompetencja kluczowa, której kształtowanie wpływa także na rozwój innych ważnych kompetencji w procesie kształcenia przez całe życie. Dlatego cele kształcenia w zakresie przedsiębiorczości, w szczególności w ramach edukacji szkolnej, są szerokie i nie odnoszą się tylko do wiedzy i umiejętności potrzebnych do założenia i prowadzenia własnej działalności gospodarczej. Jednocześnie jednym z wielkich wyzwań cywilizacyjnych jest realizacja strategii zrównoważonego (ang. sustainable) rozwoju, a edukacja na rzecz zrównoważonego rozwoju jest jednym z głównych filarów tej strategii. Do tych szczególnych wyzwań edukacyjnych nawiązuje Europejski projekt SUSEN (ang. „Sustainable Entrepreneurship – A Game-Based Exploration for Lower Secondary Schools”, tj. „Zrównoważona przedsiębiorczość – odkrywanie idei z wykorzystaniem gry dla szkół gimnazjalnych”) realizowany przez konsorcjum składające się z partnerów z rożnych krajów europejskich. Przedmiotem pracy są przesłanki realizacji, podstawowe cele i produkty finalne tego projektu, przydatne w edukacji w zakresie przedsiębiorczości i ekorozwoju. Podstawowym celem artykułu jest pokazanie możliwości i zalet zastosowania w praktyce edukacyjnej głównego produktu, którym jest gra dydaktyczna PowerPlayer, oraz ocena jego przydatności w świetle wstępnych wyników pilotażu prowadzonego w polskich szkołach. PowerPlayer to gra planszowa przeznaczona dla uczniów, głownie wieku w wieku 12–15 lat. Narzędzie to łączy w sobie cechy typowe dla gier strategicznych z elementami edukacyjnymi. Gra ma na celu wprowadzenie koncepcji „zrównoważonej” przedsiębiorczości w atrakcyjnej formie dla uczniów ostatniej klasy szkół podstawowych i szkół gimnazjalnych, którzy w jej trakcie podejmują decyzje biznesowe w zakresie wykorzystania źródeł energii. Gra łączy zatem tradycyjne poznawanie treści na lekcji z praktycznymi ćwiczeniami, dzięki czemu uczenie się staje się bardziej efektywne. W ramach pakietu dostarczane są także ciekawe studia przykładowe z życia gospodarczego, pokazujące, jak firmy wiążą w praktyce myślenie biznesowe (nakierowane na efektywność ekonomiczną) z dbałością o środowisko w zakresie wykorzystania źródeł energii. Wstępne wyniki pilotażowe badań w Polsce wskazują na atrakcyjność gry i jej przydatność w praktyce szkolnej.

Kształtowanie postaw przedsiębiorczych z uwzględnieniem zasad ekorozwoju wśród uczniów z wykorzystaniem gry PowerPlayer wypracowanej w ramach projektu SUSEN

Entrepreneurship in the European education system is treated as a key competence, which also influences the development of other key competences for lifelong learning. Therefore, the objectives of entrepreneurship education, especially in the context of school education, are broad and do not refer only to the knowledge and skills needed to set up and conduct own business. At the same time, one of the great challenges of civilization is the implementation of strategies for sustainable development, which is why education for sustainable development is one of the main pillars of this strategy. For these particular educational challenges the European project SUSEN (“Sustainable Entrepreneurship – A Game-Based Exploration for Lower Secondary Schools”), was established and implemented by a consortium of partners from different European countries. The subject of the paper is the rationale, the basic objectives and the final products of this project, useful in entrepreneurship education and sustainability. The main aim of this article is to show the possibility and advantages of applying in practice the educational main product, which is a learning game Power Player and assess its suitability in the light of the preliminary results of the pilot project conducted in Polish schools. This is a board game for students, mostly aged between 12–15 years. This tool combines the features of a typical strategy game with elements of education. The game aims to introduce the concept of sustainable business in an attractive form for pupils of the final class of primary and lower-secondary schools (gymnasium), by making business decisions in the use of energy sources. The game thus combines traditional learning content for lessons with practical exercises, so that learning becomes more effective. The project is also supplied with the interesting case studies of economic life, showing in practice how companies combine business thinking (focused on economic efficiency) with care for the environment in the use of energy sources. Preliminary results of pilot studies in Poland indicate its attractiveness and usefulness in school practice.

Evolving data access policy: The Canadian context.

In setting up a data access policy to share controlled access data from the McGill Epigenomics Mapping Centre (EMC), an International Human Epigenome Consortium (IHEC) partner project, we encountered ethical and legal challenges that are likely to be relevant to other researchers sharing data, especially from Canadian projects. We discuss our solutions to the following data-sharing challenges, based on comparative legal and policy analysis: (1) providing access to data to a growing number of researchers; (2) maintaining Canadian privacy standards while sharing controlled access data internationally; (3) freedom of information requests; and (4) providing more incentives for researchers to share pre-publication data.

Implementation factors affecting the large-scale deployment of digital health and well-being technologies: A qualitative study of the initial phases of the 'Living-It-Up' programme.

Little is known about the factors which facilitate or impede the large-scale deployment of health and well-being consumer technologies. The Living-It-Up project is a large-scale digital intervention led by NHS 24, aiming to transform health and well-being services delivery throughout Scotland. We conducted a qualitative study of the factors affecting the implementation and deployment of the Living-It-Up services. We collected a range of data during the initial phase of deployment, including semi-structured interviews (N = 6); participant observation sessions (N = 5) and meetings with key stakeholders (N = 3). We used the Normalisation Process Theory as an explanatory framework to interpret the social processes at play during the initial phases of deployment.Initial findings illustrate that it is clear − and perhaps not surprising − that the size and diversity of the Living-It-Up consortium made implementation processes more complex within a ‘multi-stakeholder’ environment. To overcome these barriers, there is a need to clearly define roles, tasks and responsibilities among the consortium partners. Furthermore, varying levels of expectations and requirements, as well as diverse cultures and ways of working, must be effectively managed. Factors which facilitated implementation included extensive stakeholder engagement, such as co-design activities, which can contribute to an increased ‘buy-in’ from users in the long term. An important lesson from the Living-It-Up initiative is that attempting to co-design innovative digital services, but at the same time, recruiting large numbers of users is likely to generate conflicting implementation priorities which hinder − or at least substantially slow down − the effective rollout of services at scale.The deployment of Living-It-Up services is ongoing, but our results to date suggest that − in order to be successful − the roll-out of digital health and well-being technologies at scale requires a delicate and pragmatic trade-off between co-design activities, the development of innovative services and the efforts allocated to widespread marketing and recruitment initiatives.

THE EUROPEAN LOCATION FRAMEWORK – FROM NATIONAL TO EUROPEAN

Abstract. The European Location Framework (ELF) means a technical infrastructure which will deliver authoritative, interoperable geospatial reference data from all over Europe for analysing and understanding information connected to places and features. The ELF has been developed and set up through the ELF Project, which has been realized by a consortium of partners (public, private and academic organisations) since March 2013. Their number increased from thirty to forty in the year 2016, together with a project extension from 36 to 44 months. The project is co-funded by the European Commission’s Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) and will end in October 2016. In broad terms, the ELF Project will deliver a unique gateway to the authoritative reference geospatial information for Europe (harmonised pan-European maps, geographic and land information) sourced from the National Mapping and Cadastral Authorities (NMCAs) around Europe and including transparent licensing. This will be provided as an online ELF web service that will deliver an up-to-date topographic base map and also as view & download services for access to the ELF datasets. To develop and build up the ELF, NMCAs are accompanied and collaborate with several research & academia institutes, a standardisation body, system integrators, software developers and application providers. The harmonisation is in progress developing and triggering a number of geo-tools like edge-matching, generalisation, transformation and others. ELF will provide also some centralised tools like Geo Locator for searching location based on geographical names, addresses and administrative units, and GeoProduct Finder for discovering the available web-services and licensing them. ELF combines national reference geo-information through the ELF platform. ELF web services will be offered to users and application developers through open source (OSKARI) and proprietary (ArcGIS Online) cloud platforms. Recently, 29 NMCAs plus the EuroGeographics – their pan-European umbrella association, contribute to the ELF through an enrichment of data coverage. As a result, over 20 European countries will be covered with the ELF topo Base Map in 2016. Most countries will contribute also with other harmonized thematic data for viewing or down-loading. To overcome the heterogeneity of data resources and diversity of languages in tens of European countries, ELF builds on the existing INSPIRE rules and its own coordination and interoperability measures. ELF realisation empowers the implementation of INSPIRE in Europe and it complements related activities of European NMCAs, e.g. Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre (CUZK), which provides a large portfolio of spatial data/services and contributes significantly to the NSDI of Czech Republic. CUZK is also responsible for the Base Register of Territorial Identification, Addresses and Real Estates (RUIAN) – an important pillar of Czech e-Government. CUZK became an early-bird in implementing INSPIRE and it provides to the ELF a number of compliant datasets and web services. CUZK and the Polish NMCA (GUGiK) collaborate in the Central-European ELF Pilot (cluster) and test various cross-border prototypes. The presentation combines the national and crossborder view and experiences of CUZK and the European perspective of EuroGeographics.

THE EUROPEAN LOCATION FRAMEWORK – FROM NATIONAL TO EUROPEAN

The European Location Framework (ELF) means a technical infrastructure which will deliver authoritative, interoperable geospatial reference data from all over Europe for analysing and understanding information connected to places and features. The ELF has been developed and set up through the ELF Project, which has been realized by a consortium of partners (public, private and academic organisations) since March 2013. Their number increased from thirty to forty in the year 2016, together with a project extension from 36 to 44 months. The project is co-funded by the European Commission’s Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) and will end in October 2016. In broad terms, the ELF Project will deliver a unique gateway to the authoritative reference geospatial information for Europe (harmonised pan-European maps, geographic and land information) sourced from the National Mapping and Cadastral Authorities (NMCAs) around Europe and including transparent licensing. This will be provided as an online ELF web service that will deliver an up-to-date topographic base map and also as view & download services for access to the ELF datasets. To develop and build up the ELF, NMCAs are accompanied and collaborate with several research & academia institutes, a standardisation body, system integrators, software developers and application providers. The harmonisation is in progress developing and triggering a number of geo-tools like edge-matching, generalisation, transformation and others. ELF will provide also some centralised tools like Geo Locator for searching location based on geographical names, addresses and administrative units, and GeoProduct Finder for discovering the available web-services and licensing them. ELF combines national reference geo-information through the ELF platform. ELF web services will be offered to users and application developers through open source (OSKARI) and proprietary (ArcGIS Online) cloud platforms. Recently, 29 NMCAs plus the EuroGeographics – their pan-European umbrella association, contribute to the ELF through an enrichment of data coverage. As a result, over 20 European countries will be covered with the ELF topo Base Map in 2016. Most countries will contribute also with other harmonized thematic data for viewing or down-loading. To overcome the heterogeneity of data resources and diversity of languages in tens of European countries, ELF builds on the existing INSPIRE rules and its own coordination and interoperability measures. ELF realisation empowers the implementation of INSPIRE in Europe and it complements related activities of European NMCAs, e.g. Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre (CUZK), which provides a large portfolio of spatial data/services and contributes significantly to the NSDI of Czech Republic. CUZK is also responsible for the Base Register of Territorial Identification, Addresses and Real Estates (RUIAN) – an important pillar of Czech e-Government. CUZK became an early-bird in implementing INSPIRE and it provides to the ELF a number of compliant datasets and web services. CUZK and the Polish NMCA (GUGiK) collaborate in the Central-European ELF Pilot (cluster) and test various cross-border prototypes. The presentation combines the national and crossborder view and experiences of CUZK and the European perspective of EuroGeographics.