From a Distance: International Conference of the Academies of Engineering and Technological Sciences

Munich, 15 September 2026

From 14 to 17 September, the international dialogue on engineering and technological sciences took a change of perspective. Under the guiding theme “From a Distance – Earth Observation for Monitoring, Comprehension, and Change”, acatech, as the host academy, welcomed engineering and technological academies from all continents to the annual conference of the CAETS network. For four days, Munich was the setting for international debates on engineering and technological sciences, covering topics such as climate change, protection against natural disasters, security and resilience. 

The summer of 2026 highlighted the continuing climate and environmental changes affecting people on every continent. At the same time, geopolitical developments and conflicts are making joint action more difficult. The annual conference of the International Council of Academies of Engineering and Technological Sciences (CAETS) responded to this tension by providing a protected space for dialogue, the exchange of knowledge and closer cooperation.

Earth observation: technological innovations for security and resilience

Technological innovations in satellite technology, space-based data analysis and Earth observation are opening up new opportunities for action. They help optimise land use and food security, prevent natural disasters and ensure security in situations of geopolitical tension. Delegates from the member academies, as well as representatives of scientific institutions, think tanks, companies, politics and civil society, discussed both the resulting opportunities and security-related issues.

Several forums examined possible applications of technological innovations in Earth observation and placed them in the context of global issues such as security, defence and resilience. The range of applications extends from early warning of natural hazards and disaster recovery to space-based land monitoring for sustainable land management and a resilient food supply.

In addition, the annual CAETS Communication Prize honoured the best video communicating engineering and technological topics in an accessible, well-founded and comprehensible way.

acatech welcomes international excellence in engineering and technological sciences to Munich

Academy Leadership Meeting

Orientation, trust and leadership: acatech President Claudia Eckert used these three characteristics to describe the role and responsibilities of engineering and technological academies around the world. They provide orientation for politics and society through science-based analyses and courses of action relating to the technological issues of our time. They create trust through scientific neutrality and through cooperation that allows innovation to flourish. And they make a difference — each academy in its own country and all of them together through international cooperation.

Frank Behrendt emphasised the importance of the CAETS network and its annual conference. The conference creates a protected space for discussing how academies advise and support their countries on technological issues of the future. It enables open dialogue, consensus and the exchange of differing positions. It is a space for listening to one another.

Session 1: Igniting innovations and bridging perspectives

Frank Behrendt introduced the conference topics and explained the guiding theme “From a Distance”: It is often necessary to gain a broader perspective in order to understand complex situations and identify possible solutions. Referring to the floods in Nepal, he explained how important it is to provide warnings as early as possible — the time between receiving information and an event occurring can determine whether people live or die. In his view, Earth observation and the engineering and technological sciences as a whole can develop decisive courses of action here; the decision on whether to pursue such options lies with policymakers.

acatech President Claudia Eckert entitled her opening address “From Capability to Responsibility”. Through new technologies, humanity is achieving what was previously unattainable and solving problems that were once considered impossible to solve. Artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technologies are accelerating this progress exponentially. As technological capabilities are growing rapidly, their responsible use is becoming the crucial question. The question is no longer “what is possible?”, but “what is meaningful and useful?”. Innovation is not solely about excellence, because novelty alone does not make a system outstanding. It must meet core requirements: new technologies must be reliable, secure, resilient, transparent and trustworthy. According to Claudia Eckert, different perspectives lead to better solutions — perspectives from different countries, regions and disciplines. Translating technological innovations into societal progress: this is the shared challenge facing the engineering and technological academies and the CAETS annual conference.

Matthias Hauer, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), highlighted the particularly important role assigned to space innovations in Germany’s High-Tech Agenda. Space research and technologies enable a deeper understanding of the planet and the changes it is undergoing. Earth observation bridges the gap between research, technology and application. This year, Copernicus has shown the advancing effects of climate change, including fires and extreme weather events, and has helped address their consequences. He also highlighted the progress made by the German Space Innovation Hub.

Doris Klein (DLR) connected the exploration of space with humanity’s shared responsibility. Today, she said, we live in a highly interconnected world. Human-induced global changes such as climate change are creating enormous social and economic challenges, for example through periods of drought as well as floods. Research satellites, such as those used by the European Copernicus programme, provide comprehensive data through visible-light imagery, thermal and radar images, and many other methods — down to details as small as 15 centimetres. They make the human impact on the climate visible, for example through soil sealing, buildings and roads. They also show the development of urban heat islands and reveal the potential of rooftops for solar energy, as well as destruction caused by natural disasters and wars. Earth observation, she concluded in her keynote overview, provides valuable data and therefore evidence for informed decisions on the development of cities and regions.

Julian Hofmann (FloodWaive) used the heavy rainfall in Aachen in 2018 to demonstrate how emergency calls often lag behind the onset of extreme weather — by the time they arrive, it is frequently too late to take protective measures. AI models trained using physical data make it possible to run simulations and generate real-time forecasts, for example of flooding. Forecasts can be generated up to one million times faster, with an accuracy of less than one metre across entire regions and federal states. Users  —for example, regional decision-makers — can receive real-time forecasts from the models, assess protective measures and make better decisions on this basis. Such forecasts are made possible by a digital twin of cities and regions.

CAETS Communications Prize 2026

Lucas Noduls and Siegfried Wu, both members of the CAETS Communications Committee, presented the winner of the CAETS Communication Prize. The jury selected the winner from twelve nominations. The award criteria included the relevance of the content as well as cinematic quality. Ningshao Xia of the Chinese Academy of Engineering convinced the jury with “The Story of China’s World-first Hepatitis E Vaccine”.

 

The winning video: The Story of China’s World-first Hepatitis E Vaccine

Session 2: Bridging Perspectives – Earth Observation for Decision-Making, Security, and Resilience

Sylvia Schwaag Serger, President of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, opened the second part of the afternoon by reflecting on a changing world shaped by global transformation, growing conflict and disruptive technologies. In her view, science, business and politics are influencing one another to an unprecedented degree. Developing technologies is no longer merely an economic issue, but a strategic one. Science, business, politics and society must therefore work together much more closely. Technologies alone cannot explain or solve the challenges of our time; this is why non-technical disciplines must be incorporated into scientific advice on new technologies. The response to geopolitical fragmentation must not be social and scientific fragmentation. Only cooperation can make societies resilient and enable progress. CAETS brings academies together precisely at a time when international cooperation is becoming more difficult.

Claudia Eckert spoke about cybersecurity as the basis for reliable decision-making, including in Earth observation. We depend on accurate data, yet the complex infrastructures of Earth observation as a system of systems are vulnerable to cyberattacks. She referred to the 2022 cyberattacks from Russia on the Viasat KA-SAT network and to increasing cyber activities targeting satellites. Earth observation is critical infrastructure with a major impact on terrestrial critical infrastructures, including communications networks, navigation, energy networks, logistics and transport, agriculture, the environment and crisis management. According to Claudia Eckert, satellites themselves, the associated infrastructure on Earth, and the related data and services all provide numerous access points  for cyberattacks — and their number is increasing. Obvious cybersecurity requirements include authentication, isolation and integrity checks; these are comparable to the security architectures used by companies. There, defined security standards apply within a zero-trust architecture. Many of the corresponding measures could also be transferred to infrastructures in space.

Patrik Fältström (Senior Security Consultant at Netnod) presented approaches for building resilient digital infrastructures. For satellite digital infrastructures, he argued, it is crucial to rely on mechanisms of diversity rather than on a single core network. While risks from natural hazards occur randomly, deliberate attacks systematically target the weakest point. At the same time, AI is compressing the available time windows: cyberattacks are accelerating and response times are shrinking. Yet attacks that take place within seconds are often met with response times of hours or days. Regulation alone cannot provide comprehensive protection; all users must keep the risks associated with their applications in view and take appropriate security precautions.

Paul Becker, former President of the Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy, spoke about the rapidly growing volume of geospatial data, its benefits and the associated risks. Airborne laser scans, for example, have collected 40 data points per square metre across Germany. In his view, geospatial information is becoming increasingly important for decision-making and disaster response. At the same time, geospatial data create security risks because they also provide attackers with precise information. It is therefore necessary to carefully examine whether geospatial data could be misused and which data must be subject to access restrictions or published in a reduced level of detail.

Michael Vetter, Lieutenant General of the Bundeswehr, spoke about the high importance of Earth observation for security and strategic situational awareness. In view of this indispensable role, Germany and the Bundeswehr are investing heavily in space applications. The objective is escalation dominance  — that is, dominance in information, decision-making and action. Space capabilities are central to navigation, information and communication, making space a domain of military security. Information from space enables earlier warnings of risks, the protection of critical infrastructures and the precise identification of vulnerabilities. He agreed with Paul Becker that the benefits of open geospatial data must be carefully weighed against potential security risks. At the same time, sharing geospatial data with strategic partners enables collective resilience.

Session 3: Soil – Perspectives through Remote Sensing and Global Insights

Reinhard Hüttl (acatech) addressed the relevance of Earth observation for soil protection in his introduction to the third session. The top 30–100 centimetres of soil form the basis of human sustenance. Soils perform a wide range of functions for nutrient cycles, water regulation, carbon storage and biodiversity. They also have a cultural dimension, as they preserve traces of human development. Soils play a significant role in achieving net zero, meaning zero greenhouse gas emissions. To achieve this, technologies for Earth observation, data from soil monitoring and long-term experience are needed to gain clarity about processes taking place beneath the surface.

Anna Rathsman, Chair of the Board of the European Incoherent Scatter Scientific Association, pointed out that space is an infrastructure — and, like any other infrastructure, it can be used for both good and bad purposes. One of the main reasons why we know about the problems facing our planet at all is data from space. Eighty percent of the data we use comes from space, and people use it every day for applications such as payment services. To better understand interrelationships, however, more combined data from different sources are needed — for example, to assess more accurately whether soils are stable enough for planned uses or contain sufficient water.

Roman Bosl Werner, Managing Director of TUM Venture Labs, advocated accelerating technology transfer; at present, he said, start-ups are the best instrument for this. He provided an overview of start-ups already using data from space for a wide range of agricultural applications and combining it with ground-based data to make food systems more resilient and stable. Satellite imagery makes it possible to target irrigation and fertiliser use more precisely, identify heat stress damage and prevent forest fires. The data can also be used to gather information about specific soil conditions, predict potential overuse of soils and initiate regeneration measures in good time. Livestock farming can also use this approach to manage herds more effectively and counteract overgrazing.

Niklas Wallsargård, CEO and co-founder of the start-up Improvin, addressed the problem of data quality along agricultural and food supply chains: the data are often inconsistent and of unknown origin. Earth observation can help improve this situation. It can be used to collect, harmonise and combine data along the entire supply chain and make them available for better decisions in agriculture. He demonstrated how the appropriate infrastructure makes data interoperable. Data from openly accessible sources are combined with data from suppliers and other stakeholders. Specific practical experience from agriculture must also be included, as individual models cannot provide all the insights required.

Prakash Chauhan, Director of the National Remote Sensing Centre at the Indian Space Research Organisation, introduced  different types of satellites and their specific possible applications. As the world’s seventh-largest country, with highly varied surface conditions, India benefits in many ways from these capabilities. Details from land-use analyses, for example, can provide insights into fallow land and help assess its suitability for generating renewable energy.

Minggang Xu, Chair of the Academic Committee at Shanxi Agricultural University, highlighted the key role of carbon dynamics in soil fertility and illustrated methods of soil research. The knowledge gained can be used in many ways to make agricultural use more resilient, increase food security and develop effective climate strategies.

 

 

Uwe Schneider, Managing Director of Eco-Environment Innovation GmbH, emphasised that soil is a non-renewable resource. Earth observation is therefore needed to gain insights into soil conditions, land use and nutrient losses and to ensure a more stable balance. He focused in particular on deeper soil layers. Plants with deep root systems may be more resilient to extreme weather. The species planted also determine how much carbon dioxide is stored in the soil. Future soil monitoring should therefore increasingly include deeper soil layers.

Ortwin Renn, member of the acatech Executive Board, concluded Session 3 by presenting findings from the acatech Technology Radar on attitudes in Germany towards research and new technologies. The Technology Radar does not show general scepticism towards technology, but it does indicate a slightly weakened belief that technology can solve the central problems facing society. A review of developments over the past eight years illustrated how the issues of greatest concern to people have shifted — their focus has moved in recent years from climate change to security as the most important issue. When it comes to decisions about new technologies, people show a growing interest in participation and having a say. Trust in science and technical institutions remains high and stable, while politics ranks last. “Yes, we care,” Ortwin Renn concluded, echoing a famous quote by Barack Obama.

Session 4: Natural Hazards – From Early Warning to Recovery

Alton D. Romig, Jr., Senior Adviser at the US National Academy of Engineering, opened the fourth and final session by noting that natural disasters and human-made hazards are interconnected. Around 90 percent of forest fires, for example, are caused by humans. In the race against time to respond to approaching natural disasters and maintain room for action, regulation is just as important as technologies such as Earth observation: regulation makes it possible to use new technologies for the benefit of people.

Sreedhara Panicker Somanath, former Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation and Vikram Sarabhai Professor at ISRO, provided insights into India’s Earth observation programme. In addition to disaster management and climate protection, its priorities include renewable energy, water monitoring and land use. Climate resilience requires continuous, multidimensional monitoring in order to anticipate developments and initiate countermeasures. No single sensor can provide the answer to all questions. Incorporating many different sources increases reach, accuracy and speed. He illustrated this integrated approach using infrastructures that enable coordinated monitoring of various natural disasters, such as floods, landslides and forest fires.

Weiping Jiang, Dean of the Scientific Research and Development Office at Wuhan University, emphasised that climate change is causing natural disasters to become more frequent and more severe. Ground-based data reach their limits when it comes to predicting natural disasters. Earth observation provides the temporal and spatial information needed to improve disaster prediction. He described the development from isolated observations to assessments based on multiple sources. A multi-level Earth observation system integrating data from space, the land, the oceans and the air would make it possible to move from individual warnings to multi-hazard warnings for different events.

Florence Rabier, Non-Executive Director at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, presented the centre as a successful example of European cooperation. She demonstrated how the accuracy of weather forecasts has improved over recent decades by approximately one day per decade. Satellite data are an important part of this improvement. Using Hurricane Irma as an example, she illustrated the difference between forecasts made with and without satellite data. Without satellite imagery, the model was unable to identify the development of the hurricane. Combined with artificial intelligence, Earth observation data and forecasting models are reaching a new level of performance.

Julian Hofmann, CEO and co-founder of FloodWaive, expanded on his presentation from the previous day on flood protection with a research and development initiative aimed at predicting forest fires and their development. As with the flood protection application, the digital twin incorporates specific factors such as vegetation, soil moisture and wind into its calculations of how a fire will spread. He illustrated the importance of local conditions using the forest fires in the Eifel and Ardennes regions during the summer: unexploded bombs from the Second World War remaining in the ground posed an additional hazard.

Frank Behrendt concluded the final presentation segment with an overview of the insights gathered over the three days of the event on the guiding theme of Earth observation. The combination of different scientific disciplines, diverse perspectives and opportunities for cooperation makes the joint event and the CAETS annual conference unique.

The subsequent handover of the CAETS presidency to Lukas Roffel, President of the Netherlands Academy of Engineering, marked the conclusion of the conference in Munich.

Further information

Detailed programme of the CAETS annual conference
CAETS annual conference 2025