ST. LOUIS – The Taylor Geospatial Institute has been welcomed into the Bureau of the United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) Academic Network, a coalition of universities, research institutions, and education centers involved in research, development, and education on geospatial, land information, and related matters.
“Your application has gone through the voting process by all members of the network, and I am delighted to inform you, with the full support of our Advisory Board, it has been accepted,” wrote Maria Brovelli, Ph.D., Chair of the UN-GGIM Academic Network and professor of GIS and Earth Observation at Politecnico di Milano, in an email announcing TGI’s acceptance into the network. “As a member of the UN-GGIM Academic Network, we expect you will support the network by contributing to its activities and taking part in welcoming new members.”
The Network’s primary objective is to support the aims and objectives of the Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) by facilitating access globally to research and education capabilities for UN-GGIM and its affiliated members to identify and respond to challenges and opportunities for UN-GGIM and related UN offices. As of August 21, 2023, the UN-GGIM Academic Network included 67 members and associate members comprising universities, governmental agencies, research institutes and at least one company, Esri. In the United States, members include Harvard University, UC, Berkeley, and Texas A&M University, among others.
According to executive director Nadine Alameh, Ph.D., becoming a member of the UN-GGIM Academic Network extends the reach of TGI’s focus on fueling a revolution in geospatial science and technology beyond national or regional borders. “I’m thrilled to take the work we do at TGI to a global audience,” she said. “By its nature, geospatial research and technology transcends human-made borders, and the impact of TGI’s collaborative consortium is suited to tackle problems on a global scale. Coupling that with my role as a board member on the Private Sector Network of UN-GGIM helps set up TGI to also accelerate the pathway from geospatial innovation to commercialization for impact”
Joining UN-GGIM will expose an international audience to TGI, especially at upcoming events sponsored by the United Nations Statistics Division. These include a Session of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management, in New York in August, a joint meeting of the Expert Group on the Integration of Statistical and Geospatial Information and the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on the Sustainable Development Goal Indicators (IAEG-SDGS) Working Group on Geospatial Information, in Kenya this September, and a Forum on United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management, to be held in October in Mexico City.
About Taylor Geospatial Institute
TGI is passionate about fueling geospatial science and technology to create the next generation of solutions and policies that the whole world will depend on for sustainability and growth.
The TGI consortium includes Saint Louis University, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, Harris-Stowe State University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Missouri University of Science & Technology, University of Missouri-Columbia, University of Missouri-St. Louis, and Washington University in St. Louis. Collectively, these institutions cover geospatial research from ocean depths to outer space.
For more information, visit taylorgeospatial.org.