20th UN/IAF International Workshop

20th Workshop on GNSS Applications for Human Benefit and Development jointly organised by International Astronautical Federation IAF and United Nations UN took place in Prague on 24 and 25 September 2010 in premises of Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. Workshop was organised in conjunction with 61st International Astronautical Congress, which took place in following week from 27 September to 1 October 2010. It was sponsored by European Space Agency, International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems, ICG and Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. Czech Space Office was involved in local organisation of the event. Workshop was attended by almost 100 participants.

Workshop was organised into three consecutive sessions. Two were devoted to GNSS applications, presentations on practical experiences and case studies, the third one to International and regional frameworks initiatives and cooperation together with capacity building.

The presentations could be classified into four areas:

• Current status and trends of existing or planned GNSS systems
• GNSS applications in various domains 
• Initiatives and programmes for national and international cooperation
• Capacity building in developing countries

Roud table discussion was held at the conclusion of the workshop, too. Recommendations and conclusions of two Working groups (First on Capacity Building, Institutional Strengththening and International Cooperation, Second one on eGNSS Applications for Sustainable Development) were presented in the course of the debate. The recomendations can be sumed up subsequently: 

Current support to GNSS applications or international  cooperation and education in GNSS domain is highly appreciated, however there still exist areas where the support could be increased.

Complete programme and other information about workshop together with recommendations and conclusions mentioned above can be found at workshop´s official website  http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/SAP/act2010/un-iaf/index.html.

Fig. 1: From left to right: Head of UN Programme on Space Applications Takao Doi on the left, Head of International Relations Department of ESA Chris De Cooker and director of Jan Kolář. Credits: CSO

Obr. 2: Photo from the first day of the Workshop. Credits: CSO

Fig. 3: Sergej Chernikov from UN OOSA, "the brain" of the Workshop, on the left and Executive director of IAF Philip Willekens. Credits: CSO

Fig. 4: Martin Šunkevič from CSO on the left and Ken Hodgkins on the right from ICG (International Committee on GNSS). Credits: CSO

Fig. 5: Takao Doi, former japanese astronaut, is screening poster session of the Workshop. Credits: CSO

Fig. 6: Round table discussion at the end of Worskhop. Credits: CSO

Fig. 7: From left to right: director of CSO Jan Kolář, Chairman of UN COPUOS and former astronaut Dumitru Prunariu and Giorgio Solari from ESA. Credits: CSO