Specific and transverse actions of Epos-France

 

Transverse Actions (TA)

Epos-France’s Transverse Actions (TA) activities involve all the Thematic Groups (TG), Specific Actions (SA) and Transverse Thematic Actions (TTA). There are two of them:

  • Transverse Action Coordination of French participation in EPOS (TA Coordination): Its aim is to coordinate French contributions to EPOS. It has no operational aspects.
  • Action transverse Communication et valorisation(TA Comvalà): supports the missions of Epos-France, accompanies its development and contributes to its image and visibility.

Specific Actions (SA)

The Résif-Epos research infrastructure, which preceded Epos-France, was launched in 2011 to meet the scientific challenges posed by the exploitation of resources and the development of sustainable, competitive human activities. These activities require high-performance instruments for measuring and observing the Earth, its movements, its resources and natural hazards. That’s why the instrumental networks built as part of Résif combine very high measurement density with very high temporal resolution. From Résif-Epos, Epos-France has inherited a large number of permanently installed measuring instruments, spread across mainland France and overseas.

The same applies to Epos-France’s mobile instrumentation. It enables data to be collected for targeted objectives, in the absence of permanent observatories, or as a complement to these observatories, to increase the density of spatial sampling. The instruments are termed “mobile” because they are used for experiments of limited duration (from a few days to a few years). These instruments are made available to researchers in the Earth Sciences community.

All these instruments are set up within the framework of specific actions.

Specific actions bring together instruments, scientists and Epos-France partners around targeted research themes. Each of these projects has its own governance system and funding policy, and works in close collaboration with the infrastructure management. The data produced is distributed freely and archived for long-term use.

Transverse Thematic Actions (TTA)

Within Epos-France Thematic Groups, there may be Transverse Thematic Actions (TTAs) that concern several specific WG Actions. These include, for example, actions linked to information systems, which process data collected by instruments belonging to the whole WG.

Within the GNSS Geodesy Thematic Group, for example, this is the GNSS Information System ATT, which handles data from the Renag, RGP and GMPmob Specific Actions. There are also ATTs with broader objectives, such as the Action transverse thématique Sismicité (Seismicity), which coordinates reflection on seismicity in France within the GT Sismologie (Seismology) of Epos-France.

Transverse actions

  • TA Coordination / Transverse action Coordination of French participation in EPOS
  • TA Comval / Transverse action Communication and promotion

Specific actions

  • SA RLBP / Specific action Permanent seismic broadband network
  • SA Rap / Specific action Permanent accelerometric network
  • SA Sismob / Specific action Mobile seismological park
  • SA SMM / Specific action Mobile marine seismology
  • SA Rénag / Specific action Permanent national GNSS network
  • SA RGP / Specific action IGN permanent GNSS network
  • SA GPSmob / Specific action GNSS mobile park
  • SA Gravimétrie / Specific action Gravimetry

Transverse thematic actions

  • TTA SI-S / Transverse thematic action Seismological information system
  • TTAS / Transverse thematic action Seismicity
  • TTA SI-GNSS / Transverse action GNSS information system

Integration process for new Actions

The integration of any Action into Epos-France is subject to 3 main stages:

  1. Present an expression of interest to the Executive Board, explaining the Action’s scientific objectives and how it will operate, and submit this to the Scientific Advisory Board.
  2. If the Scientific Advisory Board and the Executive Board give a favorable opinion, a more detailed file explaining the technical, scientific and organizational functioning of the new Action is drawn up and submitted to the Executive Board.
  3. As soon as the Executive Board considers the dossier to be complete, the dossier and the Scientific Advisory board’s opinion are submitted to the Steering Committee. The BoD issues an opinion and comments, which are taken into account before the Steering Committee votes on the integration of the new Action.