[OSGeo-Announce] Open Source Geospatial Lab established at University of Newcastle, United Kingdom

[Frank Warmerdam]

We are pleased to announce the establishment of Open Source Geospatial
Research and Education Laboratory at the University of Newcastle,
United Kingdom. The laboratory is one of the members of a worldwide
network developed under the auspices of the ICA-OSGeo Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU).

In 2011, the International Cartographic Association (ICA) signed a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Open Source Geospatial
Foundation (OSGeo) with a view to develop global collaboration
opportunities for academia, industry and government organisations in
the field of open source GIS software and data. The MoU aims to
provide expertise and support for the establishment of Open Source
Geospatial Laboratories and Research Centres across the world to
support the development of open source geospatial software
technologies, training and expertise.

Newcastle University  is one of the leading geospatial research group
in the UK and have very strong research and teaching expertise and
well developed CPD programs etc.  The Open Source Geospatial Research
and Education Laboratory  is run by the Geospatial Engineering
Research Group but draws heavily on interactions with other research
groups and partners within the University, nationally and
internationally. The Geospatial Engineering Group supports the
development and training of Open Source Geospatial technologies by
utilising these technologies to carry out fundamental research and to
deliver geospatial solutions to engineering problems.   They also
provide training both as part of thier Undergraduate degree programmes
in Surveying and Mapping Science, Geographic Information Science and
Physical Geography as well as through short training courses.

Open Source Geospatial Research and Education  Lab at Newcastle
University is led by Dr Philip James. Key members of the lab are Dr
Stuart Barr,Dr David Fairbairn,Dr Rachel Gaulton,David
Alderson,Alistair Ford ,Dr Pauline Miller and Neil Harris.

The website of the new lab is at http://research.ncl.ac.uk/osgeolab/


Over the last 6 months,  we have a rapidly expanding network of Open
Geospatial Labs and we are now in the process of setting up Open
Geospatial Lab Network node site within OSGeo website  so that all
participating labs urls can be added to this.

We are actively working in expanding this ICA-OSGeo initiative
(http://www.osgeo.org/node/1230) globally in our aim to bring the
benefits of geospatial technology to all.

We especially welcome applications from universities, educational
institutes, government organisations in developing countries to
develop capacity building in geospatial education by establishing Open
Source Geo Labs. Details of how to apply for OSGeo Lab is at
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Edu_current_initiatives