CNES leads the International Charter: Space and Major Disasters
For the seventh time since its official establishment, CNES took leadership of the International Charter: Space and Major Disasters from October 2025 to April 2026. The lead role rotates among the Charter Members every six months, with overall responsibility for the Charter's implementation. It must oversee and coordinate its operations, administration, communications, and external relations. This period is therefore very busy for the lead, who appoints a strengthened team to manage the work.
The 54th meeting of the Charter's Board was held from October 6 to 10, 2025, in Strasbourg, France. This in-person meeting of all the Charter's international members marked the official start of the French lead period. The handover between the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and CNES took place on October 8, 2025. At the end of April 2026, CNES will handover to a shared leadership between the United Arab Emirates Space Agency (UAESA) and the European Space Agency (ESA).
The Disasters Charter participants to the 54th meeting were members of the Executive Secretariat, Communications group and Board. They had very fruitful discussions about reports from users of satellite images, future improvements, communications and strategic items. Among the results of the meeting, the continuation of partnerships with the United Nations (UNOOSA and UNOSAT), Copernicus EMS, and Sentinel Asia has been approved.
Ahead of this 54th meeting, on October 6 and 7, a Project Manager and Value Adder Training meeting was organized by Charter Members with the contribution of expert GIS instructors (Zachary Foltz and Vittorio Trivigno, ESA) and the ICube-SERTIT Team. The group used a number of tools in the Charter Mapper platform to address a series of disaster topics where the production of essential and crucial disaster related geographic information data using the Charter optical and radar satellites were fundamental.
In collaboration with the Charter, ESA's Φ-lab conducted the AI4EO Challenge (Artificial Intelligence for Earth Observation) in 2025. The aim was to provide satellite datasets so that participants could develop an artificial intelligence model to better detect post-earthquake damage. The challenge attracted 143 participants from 40 different countries. The 4 winners of this challenge were recognized at the Strasbourg meeting.
This 54th Board meeting was also the opportunity to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Charter, along with the wishes of all members for the continuation of this successful international cooperation.