Today, more than 40 national and regional Geological Survey Organisations (GSOs) from over 30 European countries have joined forces to launch the ERA‐NET co-fund action “Establishing the European Geological Surveys Research Area to deliver a Geological Service for Europe (GeoERA)”. The integration of the participants’ knowledge and information on subsurface resources, to support sustainable use of the subsurface and to address some of Europe’s grand challenges, is the key aim of GeoERA. The GeoERA programme, was initiated through EuroGeoSurveys – the organisation of European Geological Surveys, as part of the realization of its “vision towards a Geological Service for Europe” and extended to all GSOs on the European continent. It has an overall budget of 30.3 M€, of which 10 M€ is provided by European Commission and the remainder is provided by the GeoERA participants as in‐kind contributions to the funded transnational projects. It will provide interoperable, pan‐European data and information services on the distribution of geo‐energy, groundwater and raw material resources and harmonized methods to assess these. It will also develop common assessment frameworks and methodologies for supporting the European national and regional policy-makers for a better understanding and management of the water‐energy‐raw materials nexus to determine potential impacts and risks of subsurface use. Mrs Teresa Ponce de Leão, EuroGeoSurveys President, says “GeoERA represents the key step for establishing a common European Knowledge Base and to a joint provision of a Geological Service for Europe. The Geological Knowledge Base will provide European stakeholders with open access to objective and seamless data, information, knowledge and expertise on subsurface resources and their sustainable use and management”. Mrs Yvonne Schavemaker, GeoERA Project Manager, highlights the large impact GeoERA will have in integrating and harmonizing national and regional research resources and optimizing pan‐European coverage of geological...

The major event INSPIRE Conference was held in Barcelona on the 26th-30th September 2016. Introduced by Mr de Groof (European Commission DG for Environment), EuroGeoSurveys Secretary General Mr Luca Demicheli gave a remarkable talk on the European Geological Surveys contribution to INSPIRE, from One-Geology Europe to EGDI. “EGDI now is a reality in a new portal, where there is already a prototype perfectly functioning” “You can have access through a very simple system to information provided by the National Geological Surveys, all harmonized, INSPIRE-compliant, etc. It’s a fantastic tool” “We can state that now for the first time there is a home for pan-european geological datasets and services from past and ongoing projects. That will stay there forever, as we will maintain it” The INSPIRE Directive aims to create a European Union spatial data infrastructure for the purposes of EU environmental policies and policies or activities which may have an impact on the environment....