"The EUGENE project aims at improving cooperation among European institutions acive in the domain of Earth observations and intensifying the coordination of contributions from national and European programmes to building GEOSS. EUGENE will initiate a process that should lead to a more coordinated planning and acting of the relevant European actors in the future.Specifically, the project will analyze the status quo in the European Earth observation for three of the nine GEO Societal Benefit Areas (SBA), namely disasters, water, and climate. For each of these SBA a report will be prepared to describe the current situation in Europe, including the main initiatives and activities. The main actors will be engaged for preparing these reports. Three thematic workshops will be organized on the basis of these reports. They will discuss potential activities for improvement and develop recommendations for a targeted, strategic participation of Europe in building GEOSS.The project results are aimed at supporting the European Commission and other European GEO Members and GEO Participating Organizations in their participation in GEO. The project will also be active in preparing the European positions for the 2010 GEO Summit."