›United Nations/Austria Symposium

The UN/Austria Symposium is one of the long-standing activities that are performed under the Programme of Space Applications of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. It has been organized in Graz since 1994, marking this year the 25 th anniversary of the first Symposium entitled "Enhancing Social, Economic and Environmental Security through Space Technology". The topic proposed for this year is "Space: A tool for Accessibility, Diplomacy and Cooperation". It will build upon the past 24 years of UN/Austria Symposia, using some of the four pillars developed during the preparatory process for the UNISPACE+50 anniversary event in June 2018 to structure the sessions, in particular, Space Diplomacy and Space Accessibility:

- Space Diplomacy will aim at providing a view of how space is a tool for cooperation and diplomacy. Therefore, a session focused on those aspects will be included. This session is an opportunity for the diplomatic community to provide examples of how space is used in their respective countries and showcase this use for development and cooperation, and how cooperation with other countries or international organizations has contributed to the development of space activities.

- Space Accessibility relates to the use by all communities of space data and technology. Space Accessibility is a two-way avenue, on one hand, it requires the availability of systems and that can be accessed by of user communities. It is quite common that users are not aware of the availability or the capabilities space-based services. On the other hand, Space Accessibility requires understanding the needs and capabilities of the people who will be using space-based services, the design of these services, requires understanding of what users need. will aim at providing a view on user needs and solutions. The block devoted to solutions will be split in two subtopics, namely space derived services for development and global solutions for local problems.

The main objective of this symposium is to foster dialogue between the diplomatic community and those communities using space, exploring ways to utilize space related activities and services as a tool for diplomacy, and cooperation, stimulating access to space related services that are available and accessible by different countries.