Documents / Report
The Office of the Chief Science Advisor of Canada issued this June 2025 report of the Sky Canada Project, which reviewed how public reports of unidentified aerial phenomena are handled in Canada. It finds no cohesive, standardized reporting system, no official public platform, limited analysis and little scientific involvement. It compares approaches in the United States, France and Chile, includes a commissioned public survey, and makes fourteen recommendations, including naming a lead federal agency, creating a dedicated reporting service and cooperating with AARO, NASA, GEIPAN and SEFAA.
“UFO Research Society”5 pages
REPORT OF THE SKY CANADA PROJECT# 37 Management of UAP reports in Europe France France’s government-funded organization charged with man- aging UAP reports is housed within its space agency, the CNES (Centre national d’études spatiales, or National Centre for Space Studies). The CNES office called GEIPAN (Groupe d’Études et d’Informations sur les Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non identifiés, or Unidentified Aerospace Phenomenon Re- search and Information Group), has been studying UAPs since 1977. Its mission is to collect, investigate and archive UAP reports and make its findings available to the public. By ano- nymizing sightings, GEIPAN allows further study of observed phenomena by external scientific teams. The principles guiding GEIPAN include low operational costs, public service, respect for witnesses and a commitment to transparency, neutrality and objective investigation. GEIPAN has a team of three full-time employees to manage the reporting process. Members of the public can file a UAP sight- ing report through a form that is available online. Reports are investigated through the efforts of over 20 trained volunteers throughout France. GEIPAN has a large number of government partners (including the military, civil aviation, meteorological offices, Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, and the French national police, among others) and external contacts from complementary fields (including astronomy, aeronautics, meteorology, psychology, imaging, drone technol- ogy, electromagnetism, etc.). GEIPAN’s steering committee is chaired by an established aerospace expert and includes rep- resentatives of the country’s civil and military authorities. The steering committee’s mission is to analyze the performance of GEIPAN and make recommendations to CNES. The French organization Méprises du Ciel (Misunderstandings of the sky) also receives UAP sightings from GEIPAN and the public. This organization helps educate the public about the mischaracterization of UAPs. While it is difficult to establish a direct causal relationship between these investigative efforts and changes in public perspective, there are indications that in France, UAP-related conspiracies are decreasing and are less prevalent compared with other countries.40 Solar eclipse (left) and Venus (right) in Embrun, France. Venus frequently sparks UAP reports from the public, due to its bright and striking appearance. Germany For over 50 years, Germany’s contact point for UAP reporting has been the GEP (Gesellschaft zur Erforschung des UFO- Phänomens, or The Society for Research into the UFO Phe- nomena),41 a Ludenscheid-based non-profit citizen science organization. The GEP receives public reports of UAP sightings, conducts investigations on a case-by-case basis, and makes its findings public. Since 1980, it has published its findings in its bimonthly Journal für UFO-Forschung (Journal of UFO Research). According to GEP’s annual report,42 they have received an average of 342 reports per year from 2022 to 2024. Over 90% of reports received have been explained as conven- tional causes with the remainder being unexplained due to insufficient data. f Flying Saucer Working Party—Wikipedia g UK Government Flying Saucer Working Party (ianridpath.com) Italy Italy has two well-known private non-profit UAP-related organi- zations: the CUN (Centro ufologico nazionale, or National Ufo- logical Center),43 and the CISU (Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici, or Italian Center for Ufological Studies).44 They were estab- lished in 1965 and 1985 respectively. Both are involved in col- lecting and cataloguing testimonies of UAP sightings and public reporting. The two organizations are also provided access to the Italian Ministry of Defence’s unclassified UAP investigations which are carried out by the Italian Air Force. United Kingdom The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) was in charge of investigating UFO reports from 1950 to 2009. From the outset, the MoD set up a working group under its Chief Science Advisor to study the UFO phenomenon. In June 1951, the work- ing group concluded that UFO sightings could be explained by “astronomical or meteorological phenomena; misidentification of aircraft, balloons, birds, optical illusions and psychological delusions, and deliberate hoaxes.”f It recommended that “no further investigation of reported mysterious aerial phenome- na be undertaken, unless and until some material evidence becomes available.”g Nonetheless, the MoD kept a UFO hotline and email address to receive sighting reports, as well as a small team of investigators. It published annual reports from 1997 to 2009, listing the dates, times, location and brief descriptions of all UFO sightings. The MoD closed this program in 2009. Since then, UAP sightings in the UK can be reported to local authori- ties or associations like the British UFO Research Association (BUFORA). European Union The European Union (EU), as an entity, has not developed spe- cific laws or regulations regarding UAPs. However, the Europe- an Commission has put in place an “aviation reporting portal”45 that provides common reporting forms for individuals to report UAP occurrences. In spite of this development, the European Commission considers that the area of UAPs is under the juris- diction of the Member States,46 which allows them to address these phenomena according to their national security needs. Northern lights in German countryside. All over the world, people are captivated, their eyes fixed on the sky, marveling at such natural spectacles.
Report, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 30 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.