UKRI-3142 EO DataHub Platform Software Infrastructure

Data infrastructure for the UK is critical in the Earth Observation (EO) sector as it directly impacts the ability of UK science to produce world-leading information for discovery and policy, and the ability of our growing downstream industry to capitalise and invest in services built around UK capabilities and assets. The UK Government consistently recognises the value of EO capability with the importance of ongoing investment in the UK's role recognised in the National Space Strategy and at global events such as COP26. Research and analysis repeatedly point to the need to invest in a way which catalyses that investment and bridges the "data to information" divide. Evidence from engagement with users in the EO sector has shown that there are barriers to the effective exploitation of Earth observation data. These include fragmentation of data sources and services and the fact that source data may not be in a readily exploitable form. The EO DataHub (EODH) programme has been instigated to address these challenges. It represents a first phase of a national asset, supported by the government and specified with the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) alongside NERC. The programme is a pathfinder project led by the National Centre for Earth Observation through CEDA (https://www.ceda.ac.uk ) at RAL Space and a partnership of public sector bodies. Its role is to: a) serve the UK national interest; b) offer all UK users a step-change in data access and quality from commercial to government actionees to researchers and students; c) mitigate and transition the Copernicus-related data activities to a UK-orientated model; d) provide a delivery approach which enables a much more rigorous, evidence-led legacy beyond the project - articulating UK capability, showcasing UK datasets, evidenced costs and user-specified sustainability needs. The successful tenderer will build, deploy and operate the Hub Platform (i.e. a set of software services hosted on the public cloud) to assist application developers and Earth Observation domain experts to find, access, analyse and process EO data from multiple distributed sources in a consistent manner and in a form that is suited for easy use in software applications and services to end-user communities. The desired outcome is that through access to the platform, software developers and expert users can more easily implement applications and services which exploit EO data. Users of the Hub Platform will have a set of software tools and services that will allow them to discover, access, analyse and process EO and climate datasets, along with capabilities to build scalable workflows and their own applications. The contract will be for up to a maximum value of £2,000,000 including-VAT commencing in the early autumn of this year and completing by 31st March 2025.