GGOS IberAtlantic’s mission is to promote research and the development of geodetic technologies to enhance scientific understanding and applications across the Iberian Peninsula and the Atlantic region. It also aims to raise awareness in Spanish and Portuguese societies about the role of geodesy in understanding Earth’s dynamics.

Currently, however, geodesy in these regions faces a precarious situation. Despite its foundational role across a wide range o applications, geodesy is often underappreciated. Its data are indispensable for Earth studies and for defining reference systems used daily in numerous applications. These data must be highly accurate, of consistent quality, and available in long time series to enable the detection of subtle planetary changes. National mapping or cartographic agencies typically provide this data freely, but the lack of a price tag is often mistakenly equated with lack of value—an assumption far from accurate.

This low visibility of geodesy leads to two pressing issues:

• Human Resources: Limited public awareness makes it difficult to attract new talent to the sector, resulting in a significant challenge for Spanish and Portuguese geodetic agencies and organizations to recruit the next generation of experts.
•  Material Resources: Geodetic\ infrastructure requires substantial investment for maintenance, updates, and operational costs. When decision-makers lack awareness of geodesy’s significance, securing adequate funding becomes a challenge. This lack of resources hampers the improvement of geodetic models and applications, which are integral to ongoing scientific research.

GGOS IberAtlantic aims to serve as a unified voice to communicate scientific findings in an accessible way, allowing the public and policymakers to better understand changes occurring on our planet. By highlighting geodesy’s contributions, GGOS IberAtlantic seeks to address these challenges, helping attract new projects, funding, and skilled professionals to the field.