Sustainability is one of today’s most pressing issues for mankind: population has increased tenfold in the last three centuries, urbanisation in the last century, large fractions of fossil fuels have been exhausted and impacted the climate, landscapes and the water cycle have been largely modified, etc. These questions are of prime importance for Europe.

Geoscientists have certainly an important social role to fulfill to achieve a sustainable use and management of the Planet’s resources and environment. This includes:
- to promote a broader geoscience education to improve the public awareness,
- to improve geoscience information networks and systems,
- to identify the grand challenges and the adequate research pathways to overcome them.

Of particular importance, might be the question of the relevant methodologies, as well as of a large scale transdiciplinarity.
A few invited talks will address these issues to introduce a general discussion.