"Session goal and FLUXNET overview: FLUXNET is a global collaboration of scientists who study carbon, water and energy cycling between the Earth and the atmosphere. Eddy covariance observations measure ecosystem processes at hundreds of research sites across six continents. Aggregation, standardization and sharing of data across regions enables understanding of global patterns in ecological response to climate and environmental change. The FLUXNET community, through its volunteers, provides free, accessible and open access to data to inform biogeosciences and ecology, bio-meteorology, trends in greenhouse gasses, climate science, Earth system science, Earth System Modelling, air pollution, agriculture, nature based climate solutions and a range of practical land management applications. FLUXNET promotes early career scientists and international collaborations, scientific workshops, training and networking opportunities as well as opportunities to participate in collaborative working groups and scientific investigations. In the last year FLUXNET volunteers have created many new initiatives in data harmonization, education and community building. These include targeting data products to new stakeholders, building community in key portions of the world and hosting educational materials in different languages. The goal of this townhall is to engage a wide range of disciplines and stakeholders in shaping the future of FLUXNET and how to make data more accessible and useful.
Session description: After a brief overview of activities from flux networks around the world including opportunities to participate in working groups that focus on scientific collaboration, data availability, education and early career development. We will also highlight opportunities to host international exchange students and to propose and participate in formal workshops and training. These updates will be followed by a structured, open question and answer discussion focused around 1) Informing global carbon, water and energy budgets and climate models 2) data quality, availability and usability by different scientific disciplines and user groups, 3) Fostering international collaboration through collaborative working groups, international exchange and partnerships, 4) opportunities for early career engagement."

"Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are enabling advances in understanding the Earth and its systems at all scales and are increasingly being used in diverse societal applications to address urgent issues including climate change and natural hazards. Moreover, the recent release of powerful large-language models including Chat GPT is already creating radical change in scholarly publishing, education, and beyond. To address the urgent need for guidance on the ethical use of AI and ML in earth, space, and environmental science-focused research, we will discuss a recent multi-disciplinary community report facilitated by AGU and funded by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration developing a set of principles and responsibilities for using AI and ML in Earth, space, and environmental science-focused research. In this town hall, we will feature short presentations from leaders in the community, who will highlight the report outcomes and outline opportunities, risks, and needs for disciplines across the Earth, space, and environmental sciences. Afterwards, we will host a panel discussion with all the speakers to start a community conversation about related needs across these areas. Finally, we will ask for feedback on a plan to convene the community mid-2024 to make any needed updates to the community report as the research landscape continues to rapidly evolve as AI and ML tools advance.

In this town hall we invite the EGU community to participate in preparing the next version of the report scheduled for 2024. Work in this area is moving quickly and we see a strong need to include more robust language around the use of LLMs, quality of datasets used to train AI models, and importance of FAIR data, and would like to incorporate your ideas too.

Topics include:
AI and ML use across EGU divisions and disciplines
Analysis-ready data to enable AI and ML methods
Ethical considerations and practices for AI and ML in research"

"This townhall welcomes every student and researcher who wants to know more about Free Open Source for Geospatial Analysis, or know already about it and wants to meet and cheers with his/her peers.

The Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to foster global adoption of open geospatial technology by being an inclusive software foundation devoted to an open philosophy and participatory community-driven development.

The foundation provides financial, organizational and legal support to the broader open-source geospatial community.

It also serves as an independent legal entity to which community members can contribute code, funding, and other resources, secure in the knowledge that their contributions will be maintained for public benefit. OSGeo also serves as an outreach and advocacy organization for the open-source geospatial community and provides a common forum and shared infrastructure for improving cross-project collaboration.
The foundation’s projects are all freely available and useable under an Open Source Initiative certified open source license.
OSGeo has US 501(c)(4) legal status as a not-for-profit organization supported by GeoCat and other sponsors.

This year's town hall will discuss on the board the sense of cooperation between Free Open Source and Geoscientific Research. Free Open Source software and Open Data are critical elements of the Open Science framework growing worldwide.

The town hall will briefly summarize the characteristics of Free Open Source Software, including the legal aspects, introducing also the essence of scientific research.

We will discuss how the FOSS software and Open Data integrate into scientific research, touching the following topics:

Free Open Source Software usability in research: what are the general and specific characteristics of Free Open Source software for scientific research?

Free Open Source and Collaborative Development Environments. How concurrent versioning systems are changing the software development scenario?

Open Data accessibility: is Open Data all the same? Are there Open more open data than others?

From Student to Researcher, from User to Developer. Let’s discuss the different types and levels of interaction with research and software development."

"Land surface processes play a key role in Earth climate. As a core component of state-of-the-art Earth System Models (ESMs), the representation of these processes influence future climate change projection as investigated in international multi-model initiatives such as CMIP6 & CMIP7. Hydrological processes and trends coupled with climate change are often retained to provide positive feedback able to exacerbate future climate transitions. However, land hydrology and its numerous interactions with other components of the Earth system (biosphere, biogeochemical cycles, anthropogenic disturbances/practices) is crudely represented in most state-of-the-art ESMs inducing erroneous response to anthropogenic climate forcers at both global and regional scales. For instance, anthropogenic and climate-induced continuous decline of groundwater levels has already started in several arid and semi-arid areas, threatening the subsistence of groundwater-dependent ecosystems that may be no longer guaranteed and so with the risk of ecosystem shifts and/or progressive levels of desertification. Recent progress in our understanding of prominent land surface processes call for a community discussion on how the representation of the hydrological, biophysical and biogeochemical processes are operated in land surface models. Such discussion is motivated by arising policy-relevant questions related to the representation of the interaction between hydrological processes and biosphere (including the human component) to properly investigate the carbon-water nexus as well as the effects of land-based mitigation/adaptation options (e.g. involving management of forests, crops and irrigation practices, etc). In the framework of ongoing EU projects (e.g. OptimESM, https://optimesm-he.eu/; RESCUE, www.rescue-climate.eu; ESM2025, www.esm2025.eu) some tentative efforts in this direction have recently started.
This Town Hall meeting will try to further overcome any silo approach by initiating an interdisciplinary exchange of ideas from members of the involved international modeling communities to identify and formulate future needs, strategies and opportunities for the next generation of ESMs. Best practices in coordination will be discussed that could facilitate the involvement of hydrologists and climate scientists together in interdisciplinary scientific teams. Further, any possibility to develop cross-cutting activities and/or to propose joint panels in the framework of international research programmes will be investigated. Particular focus will be on the identification and discussion of possible future funding opportunities for the envisaged interdisciplinary modeling initiatives for the next generation of land surface models."

"The Geological Service for Europe Project (https://www.geologicalservice.eu/) aims to establish a sustainable organisation (GSE) from 2027 that will provide European institutions, academia, research organisations, national and regional policymakers, industry and citizens with up-to-date, high-quality EU/national level aggregated geoscientific information and advice about sustainable use and management of the subsurface.
The project will bring the subsurface into the light - drawing together the baseline data and knowledge needed to manage Europe's natural resources and reach Net Zero
The data core of the GSE is and will be the European Geological Data Infrastructure (EGDI). EGDI provides access to Pan-European and national geological datasets, tools, trainings and services from the Geological Survey Organisations of Europe.
The existing EGDI system will be taken to a new level by transforming the current data infrastructure into a knowledge infrastructure. EGDI will become a fundamental element of the GSEU, supporting the delivery of knowledge to policy makers and other stakeholders.
EGDI gives access to more than 800 map layers as well as a large number of documents (reports, images, spreadsheets, etc.). The layers can be shown on maps and all the information can be searched in a free text search system.
During the GSEU Project, new components will be implemented and developed in EGDI to meet the needs of scientific users and support research in the areas of expertise for decision support, visualisation, Big Data approaches and the enhancement of a comprehensive Linked Data knowledge base.
Moreover, the IT infrastructure will be consolidated and made highly scalable. The improvement of the existing repositories, search system and semantic web technologies will facilitate the transition to a knowledge infrastructure.
This event aims at promoting interaction between science and industry to find best development areas of geosciences and sustainable solutions for georesources exploitation. GSEU will meet EGDI users to collect feedback and make the platform more usable and more useful."

"Over four decades, CMIP has driven massive improvements in the modelled representation of the Earth system, whilst also seeing huge growth in its scope and complexity. In its most recent phase, CMIP6, a broad spectrum of questions continued to be answered across twenty-four individual model intercomparison projects (MIPs). This science improves process understanding and assesses the climate’s response to forcing, systematic biases, variability, and predictability in line with WCRP Scientific Objectives. CMIP and its associated data infrastructure have become essential to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other international and national climate assessments, increasingly including the downstream mitigation, impacts, and adaptation communities.

However, despite the invaluable science produced from CMIP6 data, many challenges were still faced by the model data providers, the data delivery infrastructure, and users, which need to be addressed moving forwards. A specific challenge in CMIP6 was the burden placed on the modelling centres, in part due to the large number of requested experiments and delays in the preparation of the CMIP6 forcing datasets and climate data request.

This Townhall will present the CMIP AR7 Fast Track – a novel component of the latest evolution of the CMIP experimental design. The fast track is a subset of MIP experiments which have been identified as vital for national and international climate assessments and for informing policy and decision making. The CMIP governing panels have defined this subset of experiments to reduce the burden placed on modelling centres and maximise computational efficiencies, while continuing to deliver impactful climate model data. Alongside a presentation of the process and selection of the Fast Track experiments, the Townhall will feature updates on the next phase of scenarios, forcing datasets, model evaluation and benchmarking plans, and an update from the Fresh Eyes on CMIP group. There will be opportunities throughout the event for community discussion on the new plans.

We invite our growing community to attend. We will describe ongoing planning, highlight engagement and consultation opportunities, and invite attendee feedback and participation. The Townhall will be presented by members of the CMIP Panel, Fresh Eyes on CMIP group, and CMIP7 Task Teams."

"The challenges of producing information for society based on climate science include everything from data access to the treatment of uncertainty and expert judgment over what constitutes robust, decision-ready information. WCRP programs tasked with supporting the production and use of climate data are interested in understanding the range of practices employed by the EGU community over this entire chain. We expect that there exist barriers relating to technical challenges, (lack of) process understanding, communicating with decision-makers about how to make sense of divergent data products, and resource limitations on all of the above.

In the first portion of the townhall we will focus on data access -- where do you start to produce actionable information? Representatives from CMIP and CORDEX will present some background and then facilitate discussions about data access methods currently employed, and your suggestions for improvement. We are also interested in what other products form the starting point for some users, as well as what motivates you to run your own simulations with stakeholders in mind.

In the second portion of the townhall we will shift to facilitated small-group discussions on the challenges of producing information for society that is both robust and useful for decision-making. The WCRP Regional Information for Society (RIfS) project wants to hear from EGU members on everything from the analysis and post-processing tools you employ, to how you handle issues in the data, represent uncertainty, and work to provide information to decision-makers. We will briefly present some of the issues and then move into facilitated discussion. We are especially interested in if/how you approach co-production, whether it is for generalized climate services or bespoke projects in a particular region and sector that combine with other non-climate data. How do you communicate with stakeholders who are confused by the sometimes-divergent array of data products and services available?

Information gathered in the townhall will be summarized in a technical report by CMIP, CORDEX, and RIfS and shared with participants, as well as informing ongoing work across our projects to improve data access and build consensus on the production of robust information for regional decision-making."

"The tropics are experiencing dramatic changes as a result of climate change and land-use change. Shifts in carbon flux dynamics, water cycling, and species composition are resulting in feedbacks with globally important consequences for biodiversity, climate change, and food production.

Yet, we also know that the tropical forests are not uniform. Their species diversity, climate, soils, and human impact vary enormously from the Americas to Africa to Asia. As a result, tropical forest ecosystems are already showing evidence of varying responses to climate and land-use change. However, these differences remain highly uncertain and poorly understood.
PANGEA is a NASA funded effort to scope a 6- to 9-year multi-scale campaign in the tropics focused on improving understanding of the heterogeneous responses to climate change, with broad research focus on biodiversity, biogeochemical cycling, and food security.

We have one year to work with the international research and end-user communities to outline a possible campaign in the tropics. At the end of 2024, we will submit a white paper to NASA detailing our proposal. If selected, the campaign would support coordinated fieldwork and airborne remote sensing data collection that will inform our use of satellite remote sensing and modeling to better understand the change dynamics in the tropics. We will work across NASA programs (carbon cycle science, biodiversity, hydrology, applied science programs on agriculture and disaster resilience, and more) as well as with other U.S. and international funding agencies and donors. Although there is no guarantee that NASA will support the recommended project, this is a once-in-a-decade opportunity to assemble multi-disciplinary research communities to align efforts and outline a focused campaign.

We invite you to participate in a Town Hall meeting to discuss this opportunity.

The general science objectives of the campaign are to:

1. Quantify similarities and differences within and among tropical regions in forest species composition, structure, function, and biogeochemical cycling,

2. Advance understanding of the vulnerability and resilience of tropical forest ecosystems to global change across the tropics, and

3. Provide the scientific and regionally specific basis for informed decision-making to guide societal responses to climate change mitigation and adaptation and biodiversity conservation at local to international levels.

A coordinated multidisciplinary team is essential for this campaign, as is capacity building and equitable engagement with international collaborators."

Research Infrastructures organise and integrate data, products and services belonging to many diverse scientific communities and generated by hundreds of research organisations distributed across regions and countries. This creates wide virtual research environments and untaps the potential of enormous amounts of data and resources for single researchers and teams, but also for other stakeholders, from industry to the society at large.
EPOS and AuScope share the vision of addressing the global challenge of open science to serve the interests of all potential stakeholders, thus enabling equitable and inclusive research in geoscience. We have identified key areas to be addressed for enhancing global collaboration amongst infrastructures, namely governance and sustainability, policies for data management, IT architecture, strategies for engaging users and policy-makers, plans for education and training, including non-scientific audiences, and ethics.
We believe that the collaborative approach is the ideal solution for addressing these topics, and we are already working towards the development and adoption of common practices, solutions, and services.
By presenting the EPOS and AuScope experience, we hope to inspire other research infrastructures worldwide and pave the way for the development of a Global Research Infrastructure for geosciences.
Open to anyone interested in sharing experiences as a user, data provider or research infrastructure manager, this interactive session aims to provide an opportunity to exchange experiences and best practices in co-designing strategies for global collaboration.

The townhall meeting informs and involves the EGU members in the educational activities undertaken by the Education, Outreach, and EDI (Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion) committee at EGU. We aim to strengthen the EGU community involvement and garner support for our ongoing and upcoming projects by presenting our achievements, challenges, and future plans. We will also present all available educational initiatives to our members to raise awareness about these exceptional resources.

Our EGU committees are driven by a deep commitment to enhancing educational opportunities in Geosciences within our community and beyond. The townhall meeting is dedicated to EGU community members, scientists, geoscience teachers and related fields in higher education, early career scientists and anyone interested in contributing to the educational growth of EGU.

"This Townhall Meeting aims to give an outlook of new directions in scientific research that could be possible if online data sets, tools, and research infrastructures are fully integrated on a global scale across scientific disciplines as well as sectoral and national boundaries.

Looking up to the sky: Flying around in the Open Science Universe, we identify what is already there – what can we reach with our scientific starships and how can we benefit? What spectacular scientific results can we foresee with Open Science approaches? What would be needed to achieve them?

Looking back down to earth: We identify the current barriers or challenges and brainstorm ways to overcome them. What does this require from all of us and our current way of thinking about integrating data and science? How can we boldly go where no scientist has gone before?

After lightyears of preparation and exploration together with previous Town Halls at EGU General Assemblies in 2019 and 2023, the Open Science Starship is firmly at warp speed, aiming to promote open science across the scientific universe. It's time now to connect to Earthlings in all planetary outskirts. How can your science, your data, your publications be open to the world, your solar system and the rest of the scientific universe.
How can we join the forces of the Research Jedi, convert the Borg to FAIR, liaise with the Klingons of 'Nature' and 'Science' and put Earth and Environmental research to the stage where it belongs: Everywhere. 'Things are only impossible until they're not'...

This Townhall Meeting follows up on sessions ESSI 3.5, 2.1, 2.8 and ITS 3.11 where various approaches demonstrate successful integration on the level of datasets and/or research infrastructures in support of scientific research, aiming to achieve true open science. Within disciplines, across disciplines, and across national or even continental boundaries. A small step becoming a giant leap."

"Climate interventions (or geoengineering) to avoid the worst damages of climate change are being increasingly raised by a range of actors from individual researchers to governments, international agencies and non-governmental organizations. Cryospheric-specific climate interventions focused on sea level rise have been discussed for at least the past 40 years, but 2023 has had a significant increase in these discussions including several new research papers, two community workshops, and an AGU Town Hall event. The workshops took place in Chicago (Oct 2/3) and Stanford (Dec 9/10), and included ~60 glaciologists. Methods discussed focused mainly on ocean interventions (blocking warm water from reaching the ice sheet) and subglacial interventions (removing subglacial water or heat to slow down ice streams). The workshops were centred primarily on glaciological needs - what do we need to know and how do we fill knowledge gaps quickly and robustly. While the skill sets of earth scientists are naturally technical, there is also recognition that social licence, governance, ethics, legal and financing must be properly considered as well.

These two recent meetings were held in North America and primarily attended by North American glaciologists. This Community Meeting intends to include European and other EGU attendees in the discussion, with the aim of creating broad community involvement - even if involvement does not mean support. We will begin by summarizing the background, focus, discussions, and outcomes from the Chicago and Stanford workshops, and then open the floor to a community discussion.

Attendees are welcome to listen to the community update, or actively participate in the discussion. We seek broad community input on what a responsible intervention strategy would look like, how to think about the risks of intervening (or not intervening) to reduce rates of sea-level rise, and additional intervention approaches or other methods to reduce sea level rise rates beyond the necessary (but perhaps now insufficient) step of emission reduction."

"Dive into the heart of the European Green Deal Data Space at our EGU Townhall event, hosted by the EU-funded GREAT Project (https://www.greatproject.eu). This session promises an insightful exploration of the latest project developments and deliverables, emphasizing their relevance to the European Geoscience community and beyond.

Explore our accomplishments and key outcomes that will contribute to a sustainable future. Engage with a vibrant panel of experts as they discuss real-world applications, opportunities, and future steps within the Green Deal Data Space. Whether you are an early career researcher, educator, policymaker, or technology enthusiast, this event offers valuable insights and networking opportunities.

Our event aims to provide a practical understanding of how geoscientists can interact and benefit from the Green Deal Data Space, offering attendees actionable knowledge and fostering meaningful connections within the environmental and Earth system community. Dive deep into the concept of the Minimum Viable Green Deal Data Space, meticulously examining the technical architecture outlined in our Blueprint. Gain a comprehensive understanding of the intricacies of our open and inclusive multi-stakeholder governance scheme, designed to ensure a collaborative and transparent approach.

Join us for an informative discussion, where we explore the intricate intersection of geoscience and data, paving the way for a greener and more sustainable future. Gain valuable insight into our strategic roadmap, providing a clear illumination of the path toward future implementation and capacity building. Recognize that this session transcends a mere discussion; it represents an invaluable opportunity to become an active participant in a transformative movement, directly shaping the horizons of geoscience through pioneering data innovation. Your active participation and collaboration are not only welcomed but strongly encouraged as we collectively strive towards forging a more resilient and well-balanced world.

Join us for this transformative experience, and together, let's shape a sustainable future. See you at the GREAT Townhall meeting."

"As an international treaty in the UN framework, the TPNW prohibits developing, testing, producing, manufacturing, transferring, possessing, stockpiling, using or threatening to use nuclear weapons, or allowing nuclear weapons to be stationed. It also prohibits assisting, encouraging or inducing anyone to engage in any of these activities. If nuclear-armed states join the TPNW, there will be a process to verify their compliance. Furthermore, the Treaty includes so-called positive obligations, namely to provide assistance to victims of nuclear weapons and for the remediation of contaminated environments. (See https://www.icanw.org/the_treaty/ and our presentation in Session EOS4.2). Currently, the TPNW has 69 members - among them, for example, Austria, Kazakhstan, Mexico, and South Africa - plus an additional 24 signatories who haven't yet ratified.

In order to institutionalise the scientific and technical support for the implementation of the TPNW, the first meeting of States parties (Vienna 2022) decided to establish a Scientific Advisory Group (SAG) and to task it, inter alia, to ""identify and engage scientific and technical institutions in States parties and more broadly to establish a network of experts to support the goals of the Treaty"".

The SAG is active since Spring 2023 and is currently considering the procedure for establishing such a scientific network. Basically, the network's purpose will be
(a) to provide a broader knowledge base for the SAG and the States parties to draw on as they work towards the implementation of the Treaty, and
(b) to serve as a collaborative platform for enhancing scientific capacities to support the goals of the Treaty.
It is envisaged that, once established, network members, on a voluntary basis, may engage in a broad range of research, capacity-building, outreach, educational and cooperation activities. All this will depend on the composition of the network and available resources.

The Townhall meeting will introduce the TPNW, the main scientific issues associated with it, such as, e.g., simulations of the radiological and health consequences of nuclear explosions and problems related to the so-called nuclear winter. There will be the opportunity to ask questions as well as to make comments and proposals for the network building and future operation. Participants will have the opportunity to deposit their interest to stay informed about the process. Finally, we hope that the Townhall meeting will enable a face-to-face (and if infrastructure allows, also online) encounter of scientists interested in these topics."

Accurate and precise, long-term measurements of greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations continue to show the rapid and unceasing rise of global GHG concentrations due to human activity. The resulting increases in global temperatures, sea-level, glacial retreat, and other negative impacts are clear. In response to this evidence, nations, states, and cities, industries and individuals have been accelerating GHG emission reduction and other mitigation efforts while working towards equitable development and environmental justice. The urgency, complexity, and economic implications of the needed GHG emission reductions and other climate action demand strategic investment in science-based information for planning, implementing, and tracking emission reduction policies and actions.

In response, a growing number of national and international greenhouse gas measurement and monitoring strategies and initiatives have been launched with the goals of providing actionable information to guide and track climate change mitigation policy measures across scales and sectors. In recognition of the value of cooperation, coordination, and collaboration across these efforts and implementing entities, the World Meteorological Organization (https://ig3is.wmo.int/en/welcome and https://shorturl.at/dopuI) and the U.S. GHG Center (https://earth.gov/ghgcenter) invite all interested EGU attendees to a Town Hall discussion of the opportunities and challenges for such partnerships.

The Town Hall will begin with brief introductions from representatives of several national and international initiatives such as the U.S. GHG Center, the Integrated Global Greenhouse Gas Information System (IG3IS), the Global Greenhouse Gas Watch (G3W), the International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO), the Integrated Carbon Observing System (ICOS), and others. Following these brief introductory statements, attendees will participate in a facilitated discussion around questions such as:

• How can these initiatives improve their connectivity and partnership with user communities across sectors and jurisdictions for the co-design of tools and information products?
• What are the gaps in capabilities that should be addressed by these organizations?
• How might the objectives of these measurement and monitoring efforts be augmented or changed?
• What are the largest opportunities for synergy/collaboration amongst the initiatives convened at this townhall?

"The Ocean has taken up approximately 25% of the CO2 we have emitted to the atmosphere (Anthropogenic Carbon), slowing the rate of climate change and giving us more time to put in place mitigation and adaptation actions .

The future trajectory of this uptake will determine the intensity and cost of these actions and hence obtaining accurate and up to date estimates of ocean C uptake is important for the production of high quality information products such as the Global C Budget produced annually for the COP.

We know that Ocean C uptake varies widely in space and time and hence large quantities of high quality information is required to track this uptake. In Europe this is provided by the Ocean component of ICOS, the Integrated Carbon Observing System, which consists of multiple ocean stations. These are on research and merchant vessels and on moorings that measure surface CO2 concentrations and which then report these data to international databases such as SOCAT.

The ICOS Ocean Thematic Centre supports this effort by advocating for its ongoing funding within fora such as the WMO, by providing standards, training and software solutions and by auditing station operations and data quality (a process known in ICOS as labelling).

In this session we will describe our basic operations and solicit feedback in order to improve the services we offer European Surface Ocean C observing, with a particular emphasis on the likely future operation of the WMO Global Greenhouse Gas Watch programme (G3W).

We plan a mixture of short talks, panel discussions and questions from the floor and anticipate a lively and vigorous discussion.

We anticipate interest from
i) Groups already involved in ICOS who can offer perspectives on our current operational model
ii) Potential new members of ICOS interested in finding out how we can support them
iii) Groups interested in how we can contribute to the MRV of Ocean CDR efforts"

"With the emergence of cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence and computing infrastructures like the GPUs/TPUs, the geoscience industry is experiencing a paradigm shift. In this way, the industry is at a cusp of merging and collaborating with new fields and working on many transdisciplinary sciences and challenges. In addition to this, climate change, environmental and humanitarian crisis, and other persistent challenges in the 21st century draws from multiple industries that harnesses the expertise of many geosciences professional.
Hence, developing a career in this industry demands both a strong technical depth in a discipline as well as the soft skills of collaboration and working with people and organizations across different themes, countries, and core expertise. When well-developed, these skills often pay off its dividends in providing an enriching network of professionals that can be leveraged for learning, collaboration, and accessing relevant opportunities. While these networks are well-within reach, especially with the presence of social media, it is often a challenge for young professionals and students to get a long enriching relationship outside of a formal education (advisor/ student relationship) or a job. Hence, in this townhall meeting, we aim to bridge this knowledge gap through a panel discussion and a corresponding question and answer session on how young professionals can best engage with technical societies, reach out to mentors, and forge relationships with project partners in industry. The meeting will introduce participants to the suites of programs provided by technical societies like the GRSS and EGU for young professionals as well as growing initiatives for Women like the Ladies of Landsat, Sisters of SAR and Women in Geospatial that can be leveraged for developing their professional network.
We anticipate students (MScs and PhDs) and young professionals within the first 10 years of active professional experience since their last degree to participate in this meeting. Our goal is to provide them with useful tools and mental models for cultivating a collaborative and enriching network for themselves as well as better engage with people they will meet during the EGU24 as a starting point for what they’ve learned."

"The Austrian Space Forum (OeWF) is excited to propose a townhall meeting at EGU 2024, focusing on the renowned AMADEE missions—a series of human-robotic analog missions for future planetary exploration. With more than two decades of experience in the field, the OeWF has been at the forefront of simulating extreme conditions on Earth to test technologies, conduct scientific research, and study crew behavior in preparation for human missions to other worlds.

The motivation behind the AMADEE missions lies in the imperative need to advance our understanding of the operational challenges associated with crewed exploration beyond Earth. By replicating mission operations in extreme terrestrial environments, we aim to identify and address the technological, scientific, and psychological challenges to ensure human-robotic missions' safety and scientific discovery. This initiative aligns with OeWF's commitment to contributing to the global space exploration community.

This townhall meeting welcomes researchers, scientists, engineers, and professionals from diverse backgrounds who are involved or interested in human-robotic analog missions. Participants at all career stages will find a platform to share their expertise, exchange ideas, and engage in a multidisciplinary dialogue. We encourage the involvement of individuals passionate about advancing space exploration, ensuring a dynamic and inclusive discussion.

Expected Outcomes: The Townhall meeting on AMADEE missions fosters collaboration, knowledge exchange, and the collective shaping of the future of crewed exploration. By bringing together experts and enthusiasts, we anticipate valuable discussions on mission architecture, focusing on maximizing the scientific return, life support systems, and the psychological challenges associated with extended space travel. The outcomes of this meeting will contribute to the refinement of analog mission methodologies, the development of innovative technologies, the enhancement of our preparedness for actual human missions to other worlds, and the substantial creation of networking opportunities among diverse stakeholders. This networking aspect will further enhance collaboration, providing a foundation for future joint initiatives in space exploration."

We invite all EGU attendees to this Townhall, which is envisioned to be an authentic Meeting of the Minds across the spectrum of cultures and scientific disciplines. We seeks to foster common grounds for dialogue, exchange and connections between communities of the Collective West (Eurasia and North America; a.k.a. Global North), and the wider Global South.

EGU bills itself as a global organization, yet scientists from Africa, South America and South Asia, and those in the African, South American and South Asian Diaspora, are deeply under-represented. How shall EGU more effectively engage the Global South community? An important first step is to reach this community. Yet, a relatively low conference profile, along with Visa refusals, and limited local resources, severely hinders participation. We should highlight Global South prize winners, and invite more top speakers, as show concrete examples that creative freedom exists without boundaries. It pays to show that Virtual Attendance by Global South colleagues is a robust means to participate, too.

This will foster an atmosphere of directness, unity, community, fairness, support and friendship. For example: Why is African attendance at EGU miniscule despite being a neighboring continent to Europe? Change will not happen overnight. Highlighting personal success stories from and research opportunities with Global South scientists would do much to sow the seeds for authentic engagement.

In this Town Hall, we seek to promote mature and informative conversations by asking everyone, Global North and South (and East and West), what they have to say regarding topics such as Equality-Diversity-Inclusivity and Neocolonialism! These issues do not exist in isolation from one another, nor is the conversation a one-way street. What do colleagues from well-represented groups at EGU have to say? It would help to understand what the genuine challenges are that people face with respect to attitudes to, for example, "helicopter science". We need to hear more to begin to understand what it feels like to experience exploitation in order to fight it convincingly.

Several key issues call for convergence: What cultural perils and barriers exist, including professional dangers, to participating in political discussions at conferences? How are colleagues from under-represented nations discouraged by the ‘"savior complex" ? Ultimately, we pose the question: How can Global South scientists feel more invited at EGU?

"The UN Ocean Decade Programme for Blue Carbon in the Global Ocean (GO-BC), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Foundation Prince Albert II, and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC-UNESCO) propose to co-host a Townhall Meeting to promote the fundamental values of science (biogeochemistry, ecology, oceanography, etc.) which are increasingly required to deliver the evidence that underpins policy change, supports a just transition, and creates credible and emergent nature-based solutions that are necessary to achieve meaningful and lasting ocean solutions.

A science-focused dialogue on blue carbon opportunities and challenges will be particularly timely at EGU2024, demonstrating how blue carbon initiatives can benefit climate, people, and nature.

This Townhall Meeting will bring together leading blue carbon researchers and support a growing interest in blue carbon science among EGU participants - reflected in a growing number of scientific publications, science sessions, and the emergent JPI-Oceans scoping of blue carbon and establishment of a European blue carbon knowledge hub in 2023/24.

Panelists will be solicited widely to ensure that the dialogue captures and articulates the ethos and value of fundamental scientific research; the need to support (and fund) blue skies research; the value of investment in early career researchers as future ocean leaders; the opportunities and added value of engaging local communities (and youth) as meaningful project research partners; the need for regional knowledge hubs to be established and to share best practice and scientific skills to build in-country capacity and knowledge; and the growing need for an ocean science community who understand and are prepared to engage with policy makers and others to effect fundamental changes in the management of our seas which are informed by the best scientific evidence and understanding of our Ocean’s role in the wider Earth Support System upon which we all depend.

Please join us for updates in Vienna, including news from two major Horizon Europe blue carbon projects launching in early 2024, as well as the JPI-Oceans blue carbon initiative for the European Area.

All are welcome (science , media, and policy); refreshments will be provided.

Please note - if you would like to make a brief intervention or announcement during this Town Hall Meeting, please contact one of the session conveners in advance at the e-mail addresses shown or directly to the GO-BC secretariat, by e-mailing bluecarbon@st-andrews.ac.uk. If you or your organization would like to co-sponsor the event, please contact William Austin directly, by e-mailing wena@st-andrews.ac.uk."

Several long-term forest monitoring initiatives have been established in Europe over the last decades, which have generated a tremendous amount of data and support scientific evidence. They have also been important in addressing past policy challenges (acid rain and the “Waldsterben” in the 80s and 90s) and they will be crucial to achieving current policy targets (e.g., pollution abatement, climate change mitigation, forest restoration, biodiversity conservation, sustainable city). Building synergies among the different initiatives we currently in Europe is one of the goals promoted by the CLEANFOREST COST Action. This is a needed step forward from the scientific communities involved, in order to be able to gain a more holistic view of forest responses to global change drivers, as well as support other relevant end-users of data produced, such as remote sensing and modeler communities. Finally, a coordination of different forest monitoring networks is becoming crucial to fully support the implementation of the forthcoming Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on a monitoring framework for resilient European forests proposed by the European Commission. This Townhall would be a great opportunity to discuss challenges preventing coordination among different networks as well as possible actions that can be undertaken to overcome them. We welcome to the discussion researchers at any stage of their careers involved in monitoring initiatives as well as those actively involved in bridging science and policy to support the achievement of policy targets within the Green Deal.