The 5th INSPIRE Conference 2011

Each year a European INSPIRE conference is held to provides a forum for stakeholders from government, academia and industry to hear about and discuss the latest developments of the INSPIRE Directive.

This conference provides an excellent opportunity to present Europe's INSPIRE Directive to the community and hear about the developments in National SDIs.

The conferences are organised through a series of plenary sessions addressing common policy issues, and parallel sessions and workshops focusing in particular on applications and implementations of SDIs, research issues and new and evolving technologies and applications.

5th INSPIRE Conference

The INSPIRE Conference 2011 will take place from 27th June to 1st July 2011 in Edinburgh, Scotland. The theme of this year's edition is "INSPIREd by 2020 - Contributing to smart, sustainable and inclusive growth"

In 2010, the European Union renewed its commitment to 'knowledge-based' sustainable development by putting forward three mutually reinforcing priorities in the Europe 2020 Strategy¹:

• Smart growth: developing an economy based on knowledge and innovation;
• Sustainable growth: promoting a more resource efficient, greener and more competitive economy;
• Inclusive growth: fostering a high-employment economy delivering social and territorial cohesion.

This edition of the INSPIRE Conference offers an opportunity to explore INSPIRE's contribution to Europe's 2020 strategic goals and to root it's further implementation and development in the EU 2020 follow-up programmes.

• INSPIRE for Sustainable Growth calls for ideas and demonstrations of INSPIRE's contribution to resource efficiency and greenhouse gas reductions. For protecting the environment and preventing biodiversity loss. For strengthening the resilience to climate risks, and disaster prevention and response capacities.
• INSPIRE for Smart Growth explores INSPIRE's contribution to Europe's Digital Agenda and more in particular it's role in eGovernment and the development of eEnvironment services.
• INSPIRE for Inclusive Growth – opens new avenues for INSPIRE in the context of New Skills for New Jobs. It calls for an exploration on the kind of jobs and the potential for job creation related to INSPIRE. What skills and competences are needed? What kind of education and training is needed? What kind of INSPIRE applications can help people integrate in the communities where they live?

In addition to these 3 exploratory chapters, the INSPIRE Conference will examine and report on the progress being made in the development and implementation of INSPIRE Directive and Implementing Rules.

¹ Europe 2020, A European Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, 03.03.2010 COM(2010)