International Cooperation and Development Task Force
The International Cooperation and Development Task Force (ICDTF)
Cooperation is at the heart of EuroGeoSurveys – a collaboration of 36 Geological Surveys. Many of our members have strong, long-lasting international partnerships in dozens of countries beyond Europe. These international partnerships are also embraced and encouraged through EGS, where the ICDTF promotes international cooperation in projects and in mutually beneficial activities.
Development of international cooperation also has a natural home in the geological sciences. Geology has no borders, and our ability to cooperate across borders, build strong scientific networks, and share competencies will only make our scientific work better and increase our shared opportunities for, for example, sharing geological expertise, securing supply chains, and much more. In the face of high ambitions to meet the challenges of the green transition, and increasingly disrupted supply chains and fraught international geopolitics, the EU needs strong international partnerships, with partners who are willing to embrace shared values of sustainable development.
The Geological Surveys of Europe have been active for many years in building such partnerships in the fields of mineral resources, energy, water, geoscientific capacity building, and more. The ICDTF ensures that members share their international cooperation expertise and research, primarily by engaging through our Expert Groups, and act swiftly on new opportunities. Specifically, the ICDTF focusses on:
- bringing together EGS expertise in international cooperation and development
- promoting cooperation with other EGS Expert Groups
- initiating specific actions in support of EGS priority topics and strategies
- cooperating with institutions and organisations around the world
- providing independent advice to EU institutions
The ICDTF aims to increase cooperation and collaboration with EGS members and other international stakeholders, to inform and support EU strategy and policy on natural resources and sustainable development.
The ICDTF implemented the Pan-African Feasibility Study “Geoscientific knowledge and skills in African Geological Surveys”, in May 2015, for the European Commission Directorate General Development and Cooperation (DG DEVCO). This led directly to the establishment of the highly successful first phase of PanAfGeo, now in its second phase – PanAfGeo-2 – a project that supports the training of geoscientific staff from African Geological Surveys in professional geoscientific skills to complement their technical capabilities and qualifications. In 2022, EGS also launched the AfricaMaVal project, aimed at building business and investment networks between Africa and the EU in the field of critical raw materials. EGS is also an active partner of the EU-Latin American Partnership on Raw Materials, which is similarly focussed on building cooperation in the Latin American and EU extractive industries, including through the Mineral Development Network Platform. The ICDTF actively explores further opportunities for greater engagement between the EU, Latin America, and Africa, and other international partners.
EGS is also actively engages with many international partners around the world including The Association of Ibero-American Geological and Mining Surveys (ASGMI), the Coordinating Committee for Geoscience Programmes in East and Southeast Asia (CCOP), the International Association for Promoting Geoethics (IAPG), the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), the Organisation of African Geological Surveys (OAGS), the UNESCO International Geoscience Programme (IGP), the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the United States Geological Survey (USGS), and the World Community of Geological Surveys (WCOGS).
| Position | Country | Survey | Name | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chair | Spain | IGME | Diana Ponce de Leon | d.poncedeleon@igme.es |
| Deputy Chair | Germany | BGR | Fabian Helms | fabian.helms@bgr.de |
| Deputy Chair | France | BRGM | Jean-Claude Guillaneau | jc.guillaneau@brgm.fr |