We are pleased to announce the establishment of Open Source Geospatial Laboratory at the School of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick, 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 the aim 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.
Responding through research to global challenges, the University of Warwick introduced the Global Research Priorities strategy, which aims to focus Warwick’s world-class, multidisciplinary research on key areas of international significance, by bringing together scholarly expertise from across faculties and departments. Themes for the GRPs were approved by Research Committee in September 2011: Connecting Cultures, Energy, Food, Global Governance, Innovative Manufacturing, International Development, Materials, Science and Technology for Health and Sustainable Cities. These will seek to combine areas of research strength in the University, across departmental boundaries, in order to enhance the ability to respond to funding bodies’priorities.
The establishment of dedicated open geospatial lab within the School of Life Sciences will help to accelerate opportunities in research and teaching for stimulating knowledge and information exchange for creative thinking withing and across GRP groups. This integrated research strategy applies multiple technologies to the study of a wide range of connected systems to generate fundamental knowledge as well as a range of impacts of direct relevance to the wider community. Prof. Liz Dowler of Warwick University said “Hurrah for this: everyone loves ‘maps’ and ‘visualisations’ – they speak volumes and are invaluable for making key points.”
The website of the new lab is at http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/lifesci/research/facilities/geolab/
OSGeo http://www.osgeo.org/ is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2006 whose mission is to support and promote the collaborative development of open source geospatial technologies and data.
ICA http://icaci.org/ is the world authoritative body for cartography, the discipline dealing with the conception, production, dissemination and study of maps.