This work package aims to design the technical architecture that will enable the partner institutions to provide visibility to the metadata on georesources in Africa and, when possible, a controlled access to the data sets. This workshop was hosted by the Geological Survey Department of Ghana, and jointly organised by the Czech Geological Survey and the Geological Survey of Ethiopia (GSE).

The second workshop of work package 4 was held together with workshop 3b “User-oriented products and services” and organised jointly by the Polish Geological Institute (PGI) and the Direction des Mines et de la Géologie (MMI, Senegal). It was attended by 56 participants including representatives from Direction Générale de la Planification des Ressources en Eau, Société des Pétroles du Sénégal, Université Cheikh Anta Diop – Dakar, ect.

The workshop was formally opened by Hon. Abdoulaye BALDE, Minister of Mines and Industry of Senegal.

The work package 6 is responsible for capacity building and training programmes. The fourth workshop focused on the required training measures and capacity building activities for AEGOS Phase 2.

During day one, the topics and outcomes of the previous AEGOS workshops and meeting were presented with a subsequent discussion about the possible resulting impacts on the work of Work package 6. Particularly the interactions with capacity building activities of GEOSS, the idea of an AEGOS compliant label and the required cost estimation for planned actions in supporting the partners have to be taken into consideration.

As readers of this Newsletter will know, AEGOS is a geoscience contribution to the intra- Governmental Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and its ongoing challenge to build the Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS). It is important that this contribution has visibility within GEO and this aim was achieved in November with great success during the 2010 GEO Exhibition, Plenary and Ministerial Summit. Hosted in Beijing by China as one of the four permanent GEO    Co-Chairs, this week-long event brought together around 400 GEO people, to discuss progress and agree the next steps in the remaining 5 years of the GEO 10-year Implementation Plan.