This paper aims to introduce the concept and objectives of the recently funded AI-OBSERVER Horizon Europe Twinning project titled 'Enhancing Earth Observation capabilities of the Eratosthenes Centre of Excellence on Disaster Risk Reduction through Artificial Intelligence'. The AIOBSERVER project aims to significantly strengthen and stimulate the scientific excellence and innovation capacity of the ERATOSTHENES Centre of Excellence on the use of Artificial Intelligence for Earth Observation in the Disaster Risk Reduction thematic area, as well as the research management and administrative skills, of the Centre. This will be achieved through a series of capacity building and targeted research activities, having the support of internationally leading institutions, i.e., the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence from Germany and the University of Rome Tor Vergata from Italy, assisting the ERATOSTHENES Centre of Excellence to reach its longterm objective of raised excellence on Artificial Intelligence for Earth Observation on environmental hazards.

The present work was conducted in the framework of AI-OBSERVER project (https://ai-observer.eu/) titled “Enhancing Earth Observation capabilities of the Eratosthenes Centre of Excellence on Disaster Risk Reduction through Artificial Intelligence”, that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe Framework Programme HORIZON-WIDERA-2021 ACCESS-03 (Twinning) under the Grant Agreement No 101079468.