Compass INSPIRE Expert, Roger Longhorn, participated in the EuroSDR workshop on “Atlas of INSPIRE Implementation Methods, on 14-15 January 2010, hosted by IGN Belgium at the Club Prince Albert in Brussels. The workshop was attended by 22 staff representing the official SDI and INSPIRE implementation efforts in 10 countries, including Switzerland and Croatia. The purpose of the meeting, the second in this project, was to review progress to date on building the Atlas of INSPIRE Implementation Methods’, focusing on identifiable ‘best practice’ and challenges that have arisen since INSPIRE was published in 2007. Research staff from SADL at K. U. Leuven Belgium, plus ITC and Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands were on hand, who are involved in the analytical work underpinning the Atlas development. Also present was Luc Van Linden, of 1Spatial, who is part of the team currently developing the Transformation Service Technical Guidelines for INSPIRE.

During the first day of the workshop, participants presented developments regarding implementation of INSPIRE as part of their national SDI initiatives, including challenges that had been faced so far – and those remaining to be overcome. On day two of the workshop, participants and the organisers developed a list of more than 50 research questions that they considered still needed attention in regard to SDI implementation across Europe. They agreed that a concerted effort would be made to embed this line of research in future Framework RTD programmes (FP7 runs through 2013) and in the CIP ICT PSP programme overseen by DG Information Society. The Atlas will be published as a wiki later in 2010, so that it can be kept up to date over time, as more experiences are gained with INSPIRE implementation issues.

All expressed their appreciation to Ingrid Vanden Berghe, Director General of IGN Belgium, the national mapping agency of Belgium, for organising the meeting in such a superb venue as the Club Prince Albert.