The Latino Consortium, an association of four European and Latin American institutions,   has recently been chosen as Galileo Information Centre for Latin America. The centre constitutes a focal point in the region and has a long term perspective.

Galileo Information Centre for Latin America’ objectives are:

 – Disseminating information about EGNOS and Galileo to increase awareness among main actors around GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) in the region such as decision makers, investors, institutions, regulators, industries, service and data providers and final users;

– Identifying the social, economical and operational benefits that Galileo will bring to the users of the region;

 – Supporting the regional developments of Galileo (e.g. local elements,
applications, regional components, etc.) and the industrial cooperation
between Latin American and European partners;

– Facilitating long-term uptake of European GNSS in the region,
identifying new applications that could be developed in the
region based on EGNOS/Galileo and its unparalleled quality of services compared to existing systems (e.g.higher accuracy, service guarantee, integrity);

– Supporting the integration of Galileo in the regional plan for GNSS;

– Establishing links between key players and stakeholders from Latin America and Europe at different levels;

– Supporting the Galileo cooperation project in Latin America with the organization of workshops for results dissemination. This activity is based upon earlier experience with the EDISA project and is under responsibility of a separate industrial consortia but run in parallel with the Galileo Information Centre one.

It will implement its mission through the organisation of and participation in training and dissemination activities, seminars and exhibitions. In addition, the Consortium will develop a web site and other information tools to disseminate the Galileo activities in Latin America and will run an Info-Desk.

As a highlight, Latino will organize an annual prize for university students doing a thesis or PhD project on a Galileo related topic.

Latino Consortium is presently constituted by a team composed of the following partners and is considering the possibility to further develop this network in the region :

  • Pildo Consulting S.L.: Founded in 2001, Pildo Lab’s main centre is in Barcelona, Spain. The company’s activities cover consulting and development services offering world-class solutions on Aeronautics; Remote Sensing – Earth Observation; Critical S/W and IT computing; and Science, Technology and Society (STS) disciplines.

  • CRECTEALC – INPE – ITA: The centre and the management responsibility falls on the CRECTEALC, the Regional Centre for Space Science and Technology Education for Latin America and the Caribbean, which is affiliated with the United Nations and is also represented in Mexico. It has strong links with INPE (Brazilian National Institute of Space Research) in whose facilities CRACTEALC has the biggest of its two centres and with the ITA (Brazilian Technology Centre of Aeronautics). The three institutes are established in São José dos Campos, Brazil.

  • MundoGEO Publishing House: Established in 1998 in Curitiba, Brazil, MundoGEO publishes three magazines: InfoGEO and InfoGPS in Portuguese and InfoGEO in Spanish. The company also owns the only geotechnology portal on the web – the MundoGEO.com – in three languages: Portuguese, Spanish and English. It sells books and has an e-learning system. MundoGEO supports GEOBrasil, the biggest geotechnology event in Latin America.

  • SIS GNSS S.A.: Colombian company founded in 2003, SIS GNSS S.A. provides consulting and engineering services on GNSS. The company is very active in navigation technologies, in both design and implementation of navigation applications based on GPS and technical