Co-operation between RISE and the Swedish National Space Agency

The need to analyze data from space is increasing in the battle against climate change and for making weather forecasts. RISE and the Swedish National Space Agency signed an agreement for a long-term strategic co-operation, developing the Swedish Space Data Lab. 

Data from space, Earth Observation data, is used in a wide spectrum of fields. It is indispensable for weather forecasts and for analyzing climate trends, but is also extremely important for forestry, in agriculture business, and other areas where information about vegetation and ground surface is needed.

"We already co-operate in several projects with the Swedish National Space Agency, and this new agreement indicates that both parties want to strengthen the co-operation.  We see a lot of interest from agencies, academia and companies in the area, and together we can create conditions for increased use of data from space", says Pia Sandvik, CEO at RISE. 

RISE is involved in a lot of projects in these areas, and is also running the internationally leading research data center ICE. The data center, based in Luleå in the north of Sweden, is an enabler for projects with great needs of compute power and Big Data handling.

The main purpose of the co-operation is to develop the Swedish Space Data Lab. The lab, initially established 2019 by a Vinnova-financed project, will be a national competence- and datahub for the work of Swedish authorities with space data and for development of AI- and ML-based analysis of data generated in space systems. The goal is, together with need owners and other stakeholders, to further develop this platform for innovation, including data, technology and methodology.