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P13.3: Gabriel, Carlos
Carlos Gabriel (ESA-ESAC)







Theme: Other
Title: The COSPAR Capacity Building Initiative: entering a new phase

The Capacity Building Programme is considered today one of the flagships of COSPAR (COmmittee for SPace Research) activities. It started in 2001 as a tentative project to widening expertise in space science and promoting the use of data archives from space missions, particularly in astronomy, in developing countries. In the last 17 years we have held 15 workshops in astronomy, teaching advanced students and young researchers in developing countries how to analyse data from diverse space missions like XMM-Newton, Chandra, Swift, Hubble, Fuse, Gallex, Rosetta, Mars Express, Fermi, Suzaku, Herschel, Spitzer, NuStar, as well as related science. A first period of settling down the Programme went on for 8-9 years, in which the initial concepts were refined, the usefulness of the workshops confirmed and an associated Fellowship created. A second period, marked by a continuous expansion followed, this time with a Panel heading the Programme, in which the different main space science disciplines were represented. This year we have had a period of reflection, concluding in the COSPAR General Assembly in July, about what can be done better, what is still missing in the Programme, and how we could use the impending Panel reorganisation to renew and expand our objectives, initiating a new era of the CBP. In this paper I will discuss the main decisions taken about: a) ways to better evaluate the impact of the Programme; b) a larger interaction between the diverse space disciplines represented in it; and c) an extension of the Programme with the aim of motivating younger students to move in the direction of space sciences in developing countries.

Link to PDF (may not be available yet): P13-3.pdf