Through the Horizon 2020 project - Building European Links towards Southeast Asia (BELS) - the GSA is helping to facilitate the introduction of E-GNSS into Southeast Asia (SEA).
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Operating between 2015 and 2018, BELS brings together 12 European, Asian and Australia partners, including European companies with a presence in the region, as well as leading universities. The project is based at NAVIS, a technology centre located in Hanoi, Vietnam.
BELS concentrates on three areas:
- Opening new markets to EU companies
- Increasing awareness of E-GNSS technology through workshops
- Increasing the technical expertise of people in the region
Southeast Asia already enjoys a large population of people (more than 600 million) and many technically skilled experts in satellite technology. The GSA is working to attract more young researchers into E-GNSS technology and expanding the reach of the GSA in Southeast Asia. As part of this effort, the Agency is collaborating with leading universities in the region and facilitating the mobility of PhD students.
To launch the collaboration, the project recently held a workshop in Vietnam that brought together leading European E-GNSS experts and their Vietnamese counterparts. Both parties stressed the need for innovation in satellite navigation as being the key to greater adoption of the technology.
Vietnamese delegation, gathering Prof. Mai Ha, Chief of Office of Vietnam Space Committee, Prof. Ta Hai Tung, Director of the NAVIS Centre, and leaders of the project consortium met the GSA Executive Director Carlo des Dorides in Prague at the beginning of June this year. The meeting among others contributed to the high level goal of the BELS project: strengthen ties with the SEA region in the field of Global Navigation Satellite System.
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