Opening up the Agency
Information Access and Knowledge sharing is not a new requirement. Sharing its knowledge with its Member States has been part of the ESA Convention since 1975. These days it is no longer enough to simply publish results in printed form. In our private life and often in our professional life we search online for information, and link to it.
ESA has naturally become a broker of space information and knowledge and is adapting to this new way of working.
ESA must make its information available in easily accessible, user-friendly databases, according to its own Information management policy. These searchable databases must be open to all parties, as defined in the ESA Information Management Policy, and analytical tools needed to support access must be made available.
At the same time, the Agency must strike the right balance. It must share its data resources in a way that triggers and supports the innovation of ideas, approaches and business cases but which also safeguards industrial investments, and both existing and new business cases.
