Switching to an open data policy may pose a challenge to the business model of National Mapping and Cadastral Agencies (NMCAs), especially if they are required to generate revenues to cover a substantial part of their operating costs. EuroSDR and TU Delft led in 2017 a research on this topic: Adapting National Mapping & Cadastral Agencies business models to open data supply: the survey results by F.M. Welle Donker, J. Crompvoets and B. van Loenen (EuroSDR’s Official publication n° 67 – 2017).

In 2019, an important milestone was the publication of the Directive (EU) 2019/1024 of the European Parliament and the Council of 20 June 2019 on open data and the re-use of public sector information. This directive provides (article 14) that publications and re-use of specific high-value datasets such as geospatial or earth observation and environment (annex 1) shall be free of charge from mid-2023 onwards. Therefore, EuroSDR decided to lead a follow-up, as a repetition of the 2017’s action, this time in association with EuroGeographics. This follow-up had two parts once again: a survey and a workshop.