Towards Easier Career Pathways into Earth Observation: Inside ROOT’s Second Quarterly Update

Education ROOT
Kacia Rutkoŭskaja
13/08/2026
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8 minutes read

Earth Observation is used across a growing range of fields, from climate and environmental monitoring to agriculture, urban development and disaster response. Behind these applications is a workforce with increasingly diverse skills. But for people looking to enter the sector, understanding where the opportunities are and what training can lead to them is not always straightforward.

How can career guidance better connect people with these opportunities and support people in developing the skills they need?

This is one of the questions being explored by ROOT, an Erasmus+ project focused on career guidance and adult participation in training in the downstream Earth Observation sector. Its second Quarterly Update, published in July 2026, provides an overview of the work carried out during the project’s first months, from engaging stakeholders and developing career guidance approaches to preparing Living Labs where these approaches can be tested.

Access the #2 Quarterly Update

Understanding the barriers to entering Earth Observation

For someone outside the space sector, an Earth Observation career may not be an obvious option.

The field extends well beyond satellite engineering. Earth Observation data and services support activities across environmental management, agriculture, climate monitoring, urban planning and other sectors. This creates opportunities for people with different combinations of technical, data and domain expertise.

Finding a route into those roles, however, requires people to understand what opportunities exist, which of their existing skills are transferable and where additional training may be needed.

ROOT is examining how career guidance can help make these connections clearer while supporting adults in identifying training opportunities, understanding labour market needs and planning career transitions.

The project is engaging employers, training providers, career guidance professionals, policymakers and adult learners through interviews, surveys, workshops and collaborative activities. Their input will help shape the project’s outputs and ensure that the approaches being developed respond to practical needs within the sector.

Moving from guidance on paper to testing in practice

Another part of the approach is to test what is developed with the people expected to use it.

ROOT is preparing Living Labs where stakeholders from different parts of the Earth Observation ecosystem will be able to collaborate, test new approaches and provide feedback.

The Living Labs are intended to create an opportunity for experimentation and learning, allowing the consortium to gather insights that can be used to refine ROOT’s tools and methodologies before their wider adoption.

The project is still building the foundations for this work, with many of its tools and resources under development. The second Quarterly Update therefore provides an overview of the groundwork being carried out and how the different strands of the project will contribute to its wider objectives.

Connecting Earth Observation with wider skills discussions

ROOT’s work is also taking place alongside wider European discussions about skills, vocational education and changing labour market needs.

In May 2026, the project was represented at three events addressing different parts of this landscape.

On 7 May, ROOT was represented at the DIVERIS Annual Meeting in Brussels, organised by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space. A poster introducing ROOT and its objectives was presented to industry professionals, academics, students, EU staff and other stakeholders, providing an opportunity to discuss the project’s contribution to skills development and career guidance in the downstream Earth Observation sector.

On 12 May, ROOT contributed to the European Alliance for Apprenticeships (EAfA) Green and Digital Community Meeting, held online and attended by around 200 participants. The meeting focused on green and digital skills, with discussions covering emerging skills needs, lifelong learning and career development. ROOT’s participation also provided an opportunity to explore potential synergies with EAfA initiatives and networks.

Later in May, from 27 to 29 May, ROOT was presented at AED Days 2026 in Estoril, Portugal. The project was featured in the exhibition area of the event, which brought together companies, research organisations, public authorities and other stakeholders from the aeronautics, space and defence sectors.

For ROOT, participation in these events has provided opportunities to raise awareness of the project, exchange knowledge with organisations working on skills and training, and develop connections with potential collaborators.

What comes next?

The coming stages of ROOT will move further from groundwork into development and testing. Stakeholder input will feed into the career guidance work, while the planned Living Labs will provide an opportunity to assess the approaches in practice and gather feedback for further refinement.

The second ROOT Quarterly Update, published in July 2026, provides more detail on the project’s work packages, recent activities and the roles of its partners.