The Copernicus EU space programme led by DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs has entered its full operational phase following the adoption of the Copernicus Regulation in April 2014 (Regulation (EU) No 377/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3.4.2014 establishing the Copernicus Programme and repealing Regulation (EU) No 911/2010 (COM/2009/0223 final — COD 2009/0070)). The emergency management services (EMSs) mapping and early warning system (EWS), which have been initial operational activities since April 2012 and October 2012 respectively, will continue as a full operational service as defined in Article 5 of the Copernicus Regulation. Copernicus EMS is operating in direct support to the European civil protection mechanism executed by the European Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) and the EU Member States. The implementation of the Copernicus EMS has 4 different modules:

1. the EMS rapid mapping: on-demand and fast provision of geospatial information in support to emergency management activities immediately following an emergency event;

2. the EMS risk and recovery mapping: on-demand provision of geospatial information in support to emergency management activities during the phases of the emergency management cycle not related to the immediate response, i.e. not requiring rush-mode delivery. In particular, information provision relates to the prevention, preparedness and reconstruction phases;

3. the EMS validation: verification of a sample of service outputs produced by Copernicus emergency management service rapid mapping or Copernicus emergency management service risk and recovery mapping services, and includes external quality control, validation of thematic information content and comparison to alternative information sources related to the emergency context;

4. the EMS early warning: Its first building block is the European flood awareness system (EFAS) delivering added value information to the national hydrological services and provides a unique overview on the current and forecast flood situation. The second building block will be from 2015 onwards via the European forest fire information system (EFFIS) which delivers harmonised information on forest fires in Europe.

The main scope of this procurement is to operate the EFAS dissemination centre. The key role of the dissemination centre is to regularly analyse the results of EFAS with regard to the hydrological situation in Europe and to inform the ERCC and the Member States' authorities accordingly. Also an important role of the dissemination centre is further to provide the link between EFAS and the end users through management of the provider network, collection and provision of feedback and by informing the different stakeholders about EFAS.