The purpose of the R&D framework agreement is to utilize the services of 52°North to make the innovation process at con terra more effective and cost-efficient. This contract is designed to provide planning certainty and a long-term commitment for both companies.

con terra’s innovation goals center on evaluating methods and technologies for their solutions and then bringing these ideas to life through pilots and components. They are committed to executing well-defined innovation projects across multiple company domains. To achieve this, 52°North and con terra collaborate under a framework contract and use tools such as consulting, feasibility studies, prototyping, and joint product development. Knowledge transfer through workshops and training sessions is integral, fostering continuous learning and growth within both organizations.

Many interesting topics were covered in 2023. We investigated the possibilities of AI tools for everyday software engineering tasks and how they meet the requirements of con terra product development. In another activity, we established hands-on workshops and training sessions on the latest release of the OpenLayers framework. These workshops were closely related to the “Open Pioneer” Trails endeavour. With “Open Pioneer” con terra and 52°North have established a workbench for the development of new concepts, ideas and technologies in the context of future and innovative SDI. Open Pioneer Trails is an open development platform for web clients that enables the development of customized GeoIT solutions. It is designed as a framework, but not as a fixed solution or product. The map components are built upon OpenLayers and provide many basic web map functionalities such as base layer management, geolocation and search.

Find more details on Open Pioneer and Trails at the Open Pioneer GitHub repository.