Fostering cross-disciplinary research - Training, workshops and summer schools of Geo-INQUIRE EU-project

The Geo-INQUIRE (Geosphere INfrastructure for QUestions into Integrated REsearch) project, supported by the Horizon Europe Programme, is aimed at enhancing the Earth Sciences Research Infrastructures and services to make data and high-level products accessible to the broad Geoscience scientific community. Geo-INQUIRE’s goal is to encourage curiosity-driven studies into understanding the Geosystem processes at the interface between the solid Earth, the oceans and the atmosphere using big data collections, high-performance computing methods and cutting-edge facilities.

The project has a strong focus on supporting dynamic development of the actual use of research infrastructures. Training, networking, and community-building activities will be key to foster it. The methodology ensures empowering participation of both young and experienced researchers, also from often underrepresented communities, but also incorporates new and intersectional perspectives, while addressing current major environmental and economic challenges and fertilising curiosity-driven, cross-disciplinary research.

The project dissemination activities include a series of open online training and more specialised on-site workshops focused on data, data products and software solutions. Researchers, early-stage scientists, students are communities which will be able to explore the various fields of geosphere-related science, also not directly related to their field, with the possible connection through Research Infrastructures. Through lectures and use cases, we expect to show and teach them how to use data and information coming from cross-disciplinary RIs. We would like to increase the awareness of the capacity and capabilities of “other” RIs, as well as data integration and importance of FAIR principles. The training offer is constantly updated on the project web page www.geo-inquire.eu.

In addition, two summer schools will be organised, dedicated to cross-disciplinary interactions of solid Earth with marine science and with atmospheric physics. The first school will be organised in autumn 2024 in Gulf of Corinth (Greece), and the second one in autumn 2025 in Catania, Sicily (Italy).

The applications for training activities will be evaluated by a panel that reviews the technical and scientific feasibility of the proposed application project, ensuring equal opportunities and diversity in terms of gender, geographical distribution and career stage. The data and products generated during the Transnational Accesses to research facilities will be made available to the scientific community via the project strict adherence to FAIR principles.

Geo-INQUIRE is funded by the European Commission under project number 101058518 within the HORIZON-INFRA-2021-SERV-01 call.