C4G project with the collaboration of INESC TEC represents Portugal in European Consortium

C4G project with the collaboration of INESC TEC represents Portugal in European Consortium

On 7 November, the agreement between the European Commission and the EPOS (European Plate Observing System) which grants the latter the legal status of ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium) was signed.

04th January 2019

EPOS consists of a system that aims at supporting, in a long term perspective, the research in Solid Earth Science and contributing to a better understanding of the physical processes that control earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, tectonic movements and other movements with potentially serious impact on the environment and on the welfare of citizens. Several research institutions and European universities participated in this consortium, with Portugal being represented by the C4G (Collaboratory for Geosciences).

“Having C4G representing Portugal in EPOS-ERIC is a major achievement”, states João Fonseca, national delegate of EPOS-ERIC and technical director of C4G. According to him, “it is an acknowledgement and an increase of brand awareness to all research institutions that form this consortium, now a reference as an FCT research infrastructure of the Portuguese strategic roadmap”.

C4G, an FCT scientific infrastructure for the Solid Earth community of which INESC TEC is a part of, consists in creating a distributed scientific infrastructure for sharing and provision of information and services in the area of Solid Earth Geosciences, especially in seismology, volcanology, geodesy, geology and geomagnetism. INESC TEC and the University of Beira Interior (UBI) have responsibilities in the most technological component of the project, in the design and implementation of the e-Science infrastructure for this community. This collaboratory intends to become a reference in the development of technologies, as well as a service that provides different products from data collected in stations distributed across all Europe.

“C4G, as EPOS’s national hub, has access to extraordinary opportunities in researches related to Solid Earth Sciences. In fact, C4G becomes a reference in the development of technology as a service by providing GNSS products from data collected in stations distributed across all Europe”, says Rui Fernandes, C4G President for the Coordination Board and Executive Board and Coordinator of EPOS TCS (Thematic Core Services) GNSS Data and Products.

The protocol that gave rise to C4G was signed in 2011 between the Directorate-General for the Territorial Development, the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, the Faculty of Sciences and the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, INESC TEC, IPMA, Instituto Superior Técnico, the National Laboratory of Energy and Geology and the Universities of Aveiro, Beira Interior, Coimbra, Évora and Lisbon.

Artur Rocha, collaborator of the Centre for Information Systems and Computer Graphics (CSIG) is one of the members of the Coordination Board of C4G, representing INESC TEC.

The researcher mentioned in this news piece is associated with INESC TEC.