Science communication includes the efforts of natural, physical and social scientists, communications professionals, and teams that communicate the process and values of science and scientific findings to non-specialist audiences outside of formal educational settings. The goals of science communication can include enhanced dialogue, understanding, awareness, enthusiasm, improving decision making, or influencing behaviors. Channels can include in-person interaction, online, social media, mass media, or other methods. This session invites presentations by individuals and teams on science communication practice, research, and reflection, addressing questions like:

What kind of communication efforts are you engaging in and how you are doing it?
How is social science informing understandings of audiences, strategies, or effects?
What are lessons learned from long-term communication efforts?

This session invites you to share your work and join a community of practice to inform and advance the effective communication of earth and space science.

Modern-day challenges such as climate change, pollution, desertification, natural hazards, and species extinction demand urgent solutions. While science is often at the forefront of addressing these issues, art has traditionally been seen primarily as a source of entertainment. However, a growing community of artists and scientists is coming together to address these pressing concerns. Art, with its ability to evoke emotion, serves as a powerful tool for cognitive learning and delivering messages that reignite a sense of beauty and responsibility for the planet. Collaborations between scientists and artists are becoming essential in engaging people more deeply with environmental issues and promoting sustainable lifestyles. These interdisciplinary partnerships offer a unique way to communicate complex scientific topics to non-experts—particularly in areas like climate change, where public understanding can be fragmented or confused. Both scientific and artistic communities share a common interest and responsibility in raising awareness of planetary boundaries and the fragility of Earth's ecosystems. While traditional educational methods have addressed these challenges, science-art collaborations create new pathways for research and dialogue, offering a human and emotional context through artistic expression. This session aims to explore these interdisciplinary conversations through lectures, academic posters, and visual art displays. By symbiotically blending STEM and the arts, we hope to foster discussions on how these disciplines can collaborate to explore, communicate, and respond to the societal, economic, political, and environmental issues we face—ultimately driving more effective communication and action.

Games have the power to ignite imaginations and place you in someone else’s shoes or situation, often forcing you into making decisions from perspectives other than your own. This makes them powerful tools for communication, through use in outreach, disseminating research, in education and teaching at all levels, and as a method to train the public, practitioners, and decision-makers in order to build environmental resilience.

Games can also inspire innovative and fun approaches to learning. Gamification and game-based approaches add an extra spark of engagement and interaction with a topic. Gaming technology (e.g. virtual reality) can transport and immerse people into new worlds providing fascinating and otherwise impossible experiences for learners.

In this session we welcome contributions from anyone who has used games, gaming technology, and/or game-based approaches in their research, their teaching, or public engagement activities.

Visit www.games4geoscience.wordpress.com to learn more about the session.

Effective disaster risk management extends beyond the implementation of prevention, preparedness, response and recovery measures to include how well at-risk communities accept, understand, and engage with these measures. This scientific session aims to explore good practices and theoretical approaches in risk communication and citizen science, thus in line with the European Union Disaster Resilience goals.
We invite contributions from scientists, science communicators, and practitioners, with a particular emphasis on Early Career Scientists. Submissions should address various aspects of risk communication, including stakeholder engagement, cultural sensitivity, and the dynamics of communication from hazard preparation through crisis recovery, including communication during an emergency. Contributions that evaluate the impact of these efforts and incorporate science communication into daily practices are highly encouraged. We also welcome discussions on challenges such as reaching the right audiences, conveying targeted and effective messages, and behavioural obstacles. This session will provide a platform for sharing innovative approaches and fostering dialogue on improving public engagement and communication strategies. This session contributes to the European Commission’s disaster resilience goal no. 2 on ‘Prepare - Increasing risk awareness and preparedness of the population’ and the preparEU programme.
Participants are encouraged to also attend the short course and splinter meetings, which together with this session form a unified path, allowing for a comprehensive exploration of risk communication practices.

One of the most challenging aspects of communicating natural hazards to the public is quantifying the reach and effectiveness of efforts and activities aimed at raising awareness and mitigating risks.
Project funders, decision-makers, stakeholders, scientists, and reviewers often seek accountability and evidence of progress in public awareness and proactive measures. Unfortunately, there is no objective metric available to determine whether and how the public has understood the natural phenomenon, assessed the risks they face, reduced or mitigated the effects, and contemplated resilience. Relying on the occurrence of the next disaster to compare positive behavioral changes with those seen after previous events is neither feasible nor responsible.
This session aims to gather and share experiences in the field of risk communication primarily in terms of outcome evaluation, to quantify their effects in lessening the impact of disasters on families, homes, communities, and the economy, with the goal of proposing a framework or protocol to assess the success of outreach and educational initiatives.

All science has uncertainty. Global challenges such as the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change illustrate that an effective dialogue between science and society requires clear communication of uncertainty. Responsible science communication conveys the challenges of managing uncertainty that is inherent in data, models and predictions, facilitating the society to understand the contexts where uncertainty emerges and enabling active participation in discussions. This session invites presentations by individuals and teams on communicating scientific uncertainty to non-expert audiences, addressing topics such as:

(1) Innovative and practical tools (e.g. from social or statistical research) for communicating uncertainty
(2) Pitfalls, challenges and solutions to communicating uncertainty with non-experts
(3) Communicating uncertainty in risk and crisis situations (e.g., natural hazards, climate change, public health crises)

Examples of research fitting into the categories above include a) new, creative ways to visualize different aspects of uncertainty, b) new frameworks to communicate the level of confidence associated with research, c) testing the effectiveness of existing tools and frameworks, such as the categories of “confidence” used in expert reports (e.g., IPCC), or d) research addressing the challenges of communicating high-uncertainty high-impact events.

This session encourages you to share your work and join a community of practice to inform and advance the effective communication of uncertainty in earth and space science.

The increased weather instability and the visible warming of the climate, in recent decades, are attracting more and more the attention of the public, which repositions itself regarding these topics of interest and is more or less willing to adapt and direct itself towards sustainable practices. In this context, it is necessary to diagnose the population's perception and reaction to climate change adaptation. Through environmental education, the population can be assured of transversal competence for sustainability and opportunities can be established for citizens to act and participate both in mitigating climate changes and in adapting to them, thus gaining, in a real way, climate citizenship. In order to implement successful programs for the promotion of climate change education (CCE) and to ensure meta-competencies (including learning, adapting, anticipating and creating change) to the population, there is a need for dialogue between stakeholders such as: the scientific community from various fields (hydroclimatic, educational sciences, etc.), economic agents, environmental authorities and, last but not least, citizens. Other determining factors for the orientation of the educational programs can be the geographical position, the environment of origin, the level of studies, the income, etc. As a result, this session intends to include studies that offer quantitative and qualitative methods for the assessment of several environmental, economic and/or social dimensions, through in-depth interviews, focus groups, case studies on climate change perception and education.

This session, which is co-organised by the Green Cluster (TRIQUETRA, THETIDA, RescueME, STECCI Horizon Europe projects funded under topic HORIZON-CL2-2022-HERITAGE-01-08) and the FPCUP action, aims to host discussions focused on the identification and quantification of the impacts of Climate Change on Cultural Heritage, using novel and state-of-the-art techniques. At the same time, the session serves as an opportunity to showcase the latest advances in the field of Cultural Heritage protection and preservation, through systematic monitoring and documentation, while simultaneously encouraging citizen engagement and the development of crowdsourcing applications and activities. The session will also highlight the importance of EU initiatives and funding in the field of Cultural Heritage, which faces a series of new challenges as a result of Climate Change. Finally, presentations will provide all interested parties with valuable insight into new strategies and applied technologies that may serve as paradigms moving forward.

Knowledge co-creation is key for participatory and transdisciplinary research and is often described as “science with society”, rather than science for society. Co-creation, co-production, and co-design refer to methods of participatory collaborative research, with adjacent terms including “public engagement”, or “community-led". All these methods are becoming increasingly recognised as necessary for solving complex societal and sustainability problems and challenges such as climate change, with joint efforts required from academia, enterprises, governments, and local/indigenous communities. Another advantage of co-creating with communities is that collaboratively designed solutions are more likely to be implemented and sustained long-term.

There are a wide variety of co-creation methodologies, including citizen science methods, which differ in levels of community collaboration depending on the question and goals of knowledge production. This session welcomes topics and case studies of co-creation from all disciplines and levels of participation of non-academic actors, from community consultation during the planning phases of the project goals to citizen scientists as data crowdsourcing. The idea is to not only highlight best practice, but also identify challenges associated with community co-creation. By sharing major learnings, best practices, and strategies, the session aims to promote increased participatory methods in mainstream science activities. Those participating in the session may also choose to submit a full paper in a special issue of Geoscience Communication (an EGU journal that covers outreach, public engagement, widening participation, and knowledge exchange in the geosciences), which will be based on the contributions of this session.

This session is a call for researchers to recognise that they are more than mere observers, and that non-academia actors are more than those observed. By enabling discussions and knowledge production on equal basis, transdisciplinary co-creation can empower communities, especially underrepresented communities who are often not heard.

Whether you thrill at the chance to tell taxi drivers and dinner-table companions about your research or want to hide every time someone asks, “What do you do?”, we offer an exciting and valuable challenge for you.

Inspired by the XKCD comic that describes the Saturn V Rocket using only the thousand most common words in English (http://xkcd.com/1133/), we ask speakers to present short (~5-minute) scientific talks using the same vocabulary (determined via the Up-Goer Five Text Editor: http://splasho.com/upgoer5). The talk is preferably about your own research but can also be about a general topic you are interested in.

Why should you contribute to this session? The section below is written using the Up-Goer Five Text Editor:

When you change the kinds of words you use to explain what you do, you:

- Find what is at the heart of your work.
- Can now tell ANYONE what you study, because you can make things as simple as they can be.
- Show that it matters to explain what you do so others can understand, even if it's hard.

For motivation, check out the Up-Goer Five talks from AGU Fall Meeting 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxWrerZhfrk. Join us for an inspiring session and learn about your and others' research in new and beautifully simple ways!

If you think your research is important and can make a difference in the world, but aren’t writing papers about how you’re communicating with the wider world, this is the session for you! To us, geoscience communication spans education, outreach, engagement and any studies into how any public (e.g. government, industry, an interest group) interacts with or consumes the geoscience that is your core business.

The session is a drop-in ‘clinic’ with the journal editors, so bring your ideas and questions!

The session will consist of roughly 10 mins of us talking, followed by small group or 1-to-1 discussion with a Geoscience Communication editor about your research idea – or how to integrate research into your geoscience communication activity (i.e. make it publishable).

It doesn’t matter if you know very little already. No question is too basic. It doesn’t matter how well developed (or not) your idea is. We can help you think about how to improve it, and to make it publishable – of course, we’d prefer Geoscience Communication. Alternatively, you could be an experienced geoscience communication practitioner who gets on with doing it, getting results, rather than writing a paper on it. In that case, we’d like to convince you that trying to publish is worth it!

Effective risk communication is crucial for enhancing public understanding and response to disaster risks. This short course is designed to equip students, early-career scientists, experienced researchers, and science communicators with advanced tools and strategies for effective risk communication. Participants will learn about fundamental principles of risk communication, cognitive biases, risk perception, and the use of media and social media in conveying risk information. The course will also address how to adapt communication strategies to different environments and audiences, beyond the traditional sharing of scientific data. Contributing to the European Commission’s disaster resilience goal no. 2 on ‘Prepare - Increasing risk awareness and preparedness of the population’ and the preparEU programme, the course will provide practical skills to improve risk communication efforts and foster more resilient communities. Attendees are welcome to join the scientific session and splinter meetings, creating a unified path for those interested in a comprehensive exploration of risk communication

Visualisation of scientific data is an integral part of scientific understanding and communication. Scientists have to make decisions about the most effective way to communicate their results every day. How do we best visualise the data to understand it ourselves? How do we best visualise our results to communicate with others? Common pitfalls can be overcrowding, overcomplicated or suboptimal plot types, or inaccessible colour schemes. Scientists may also get overwhelmed by the graphics requirements of different publishers, for presentations, posters, etc. This short course is designed to help scientists improve their data visualisation skills so that the research outputs would be more accessible within their own scientific community and reach a wider audience.
Topics discussed include:
- golden rules of DataViz;
- choosing the most appropriate plot type and designing a good DataViz;
- graphical elements, fonts and layout;
- colour schemes, accessibility and inclusiveness;
- creativity vs simplicity – finding the right balance;
- figures for scientific journals (graphical requirements, rights and permissions);
- tools for effective data visualisation.
This course is co-organized by the Young Hydrologic Society (YHS), enabling networking and skill enhancement of early career researchers worldwide. Our goal is to help you make your figures more accessible to a wider audience, informative and beautiful. If you feel your graphs could be improved, we welcome you to join this short course.

Choose a scientific paper. Now, picture it. Really, picture it in your head - if it were hanging on the wall of a museum as a painting, what would be in it? Whilst it may seem like a pointless thing to do, this exercise is more relevant than ever. From graphical abstracts to illustrated magazine covers to online article banners… eye-catching graphics open many doors when it comes to successfully communicating science, both inside and (particularly) outside specialist circles.

So, if visuals play such a significant role in drawing audiences in (pun intended), why don’t more scientists utilise illustration as a way to break the barrier between them and the public? For many, the answer simply is “I can’t really draw”. But what if you could?

Using principles and examples from stylized illustration, this hands-on short course will guide you through the process of creating a scientific illustration from start to finish, and prove to you that you can, in fact, draw. If you wish to, you will be able to use the last part of the course to work on your first scientific illustration, inspired by a piece of work chosen by you. Whilst I am a digital illustrator, you may choose any media to work with, this is not a course for learning how to draw with pixels!

At the very least, you will never lose at Pictionary again ;)

Geoscience communication often involves conveying complex concepts to diverse audiences across cultural and linguistic boundaries.

This short course is designed to equip you with the skills needed to communicate science effectively across cultures, focusing on the unique challenges geoscientists face in this context.

Through real-world examples drawn from personal and peers’ experiences, along with interactive exercises, we will explore how cultural perspectives shape the understanding of geoscientific data and how to tailor messages to approach different audiences.

You’ll learn practical communication strategies for addressing cultural differences in interpreting scientific concepts, translating complex geoscientific data into culturally relevant messages, and overcoming language barriers.
The ultimate aim is to tackle inequalities and promote Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) in science outreach.

The short course will conclude with an open debate and Q&A. Bring your experience, have your say!
The way of doing outreach has radically changed in the last decades, and scientists can now take advantage of many channels and resources to tailor and deliver their message to the public: to name a few, scientists can do outreach through social media, by writing blogs, recording podcasts, or organising community events.
This short course aims to give practical examples of different outreach activities, providing tips and suggestions from personal and peers’ experiences to start and manage an outreach project. Specific attention will be paid to the current challenges of science communication, which will encompass the theme of credibility and reliability of the information, the role of communication in provoking a response to critical global issues, and how to tackle inequities and promote EDI in outreach, among others.
The last part of the course will be devoted to an open debate on specific hot topics regarding outreach. Have your say!

Have you ever thought about improvising in your research? It might sound surprising, but the skills from improvisational theatre (improv) can offer exciting ways to approach science.

In this Short Course, we will introduce you to the world of improv—an art form in which performers create a scene that is barely or completely unplanned, with no written dialogue. While it may seem intimidating at first, frequent practice of improv is in fact beneficial in many areas, including neuroplasticity, emotional intelligence, collaborative and interactive pedagogy, communication, imagination and creativity. It can even boost self-confidence, reduce social anxiety and support those with neurodiversity.

Don’t worry, you won’t have to improvise on your own! We’ll guide you through fun, collaborative games and share improv-inspired tips and tricks to brainstorm research questions and explore new analysis methods.

This Short Course will be delivered in partnership with Hoopla!, a London-based improv school.

In this session we encourage contributions of general interest within the Higher Education community which are not covered by other sessions. The session is open to all areas involving the teaching of geoscience and related fields in higher education. Examples might include describing a new resource available to the community, presenting a solution to a teaching challenge, pros and cons of a new educational technique/technology, linking science content to societally relevant challenges/issues, developing critical thinking skills through the curriculum and effective strategies for online/remote instruction and/or hybrid/blended learning. Our intent with this session is to foster international discourse on common challenges and strategies for educators within the broader field of Earth Sciences - let's share, discuss and develop effective practice.

Fieldwork is essential in geoscience, it provides direct and practical experiences, produces valuable data, validates hypotheses, contextualizes findings, encourages discovery, and helps to understand and eventually solve real-world challenges faced by everyone. Fieldwork is the foundation upon which a significant part of geoscience research and understanding is built. This session is dedicated to exploring the broad range of fieldwork-related topics for education and research that can be as diverse as the fieldwork itself. Topics evolve around novel methods for conducting, teaching and planning fieldwork in a safe and welcoming manner, best practises for managing field teams, addressing sigmatised subjects (personal hygiene, safety equipment) as well as working with local communities and utilizing and sharing existing infrastructure and expertise both inside and outside of institutions. This session provides a safe space to exchange ideas on more inclusive fieldwork practices and strategies.

“The truth is almost ten years since the Paris Agreement was adopted, the target of limiting long-term global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is hanging by a thread.
"The truth is the world is spewing emissions so fast that by 2030, a far higher temperature rise would be all but guaranteed. …
"Now is the time to mobilise, now is the time to act, now is the time to deliver. This is our moment of truth.” (Guterres, 2024)

One of the surest ways to mobilise, to act and deliver is through geo-education, geo-communication and geoethics. Humanity is dependent on both the climate and the ocean, and on their interaction. The danger of climate and ocean change can be applied, mutatis mutandis, to related threats, such as biodiversity, pollution, food security and fossil-fuel-driven war. Humanity appears to be in the grip of manic growth and ecological overshoot.

Far greater numbers of citizens than is currently the case need to increase their knowledge and communication skills in climate and ocean change and their underlying causes. This is achieved through a broad variety of methods: encounters, meetings, field trips, associations, classes, publications, peer pressure, workshops, geoethical awakening, social media, direct experience of extreme weather, association memberships, legal action and so on.

We welcome abstracts on a broad range of topics, from hands-on geo-communication of all kinds, through pedagogical ideas and practices, best practices, research, programme implementation and activism. Come and share your experience, your ideas, your anger, your vision, your research, your drive, your actions, your successes – from hands-on pedagogical ideas and practices, through geo-communication, curriculum matters and research, to policy and its implementation.

This session is organised in parallel to, but independently of, the special issue of the EGU journal *Geoscience Communication*, see https://gc.copernicus.org/articles/special_issue1271.html. You are invited to submit an article; be in touch directly with David.

The growing complexity of environmental challenges and the increasing demand for geoscientific expertise have driven significant advances in how the discipline is taught and learned. As the field of geoscience evolves, so too have the educational approaches that prepare the next generation of geoscientists. This session will explore the latest innovations and emerging trends in geoscience education research, focusing on how these advancements are shaping the way we teach and learn, and providing a platform to share experiences, discuss challenges, and explore opportunities for further innovation in geoscience education.

Climate change education and citizen engagement are crucial drivers in the shift toward a decarbonized society. Informal learning environments—such as research centres, science labs and especially environmental observatories—are well positioned to rise to this challenge. By incorporating real-world data from environmental monitoring stations and satellites, educators can offer students both a clear understanding of climate change and an immersive experience in climate research. Using authentic climate data in educational activities is a proven strategy for delivering accurate information, cultivating personal connections to the issue and fostering scientific inquiry and critical thinking.

This session seeks to showcase innovative learning activities and programs that leverage real data from environmental monitoring and satellite observations, focusing on climate change, its causes, impacts, and mitigation efforts. One such initiative is the ERASMUS+ project Climademy. Participants are invited to explore how using real-world data can address diverse educational needs across various national curricula.

Data owners are encouraged to contribute by sharing their datasets and illustrating how they are turning them into educational tools, combating misinformation and building trust in scientific evidence.

In the face of climate change, Africa is more than ever in need of climate services, scientific infrastructure and skilled people who are trained in providing solutions for their countries in how best deal with the adverse impacts of climate change. Over the past years, European governments and funding agencies have invested in climate change research and capacity building in various regions of Africa. However, these initiatives, mostly work independently and do not seek for synergies or collaborations.
This session aims to bring these capacity building initiatives together, provide them a stage to present themselves and a platform for networking, finding synergies and collaborations. We invite initiatives of any kind to present their work related to climate change capacity development in Africa. This also includes climate change-related topics such as, floods, droughts, natural hazards, land degradation, and so on. We welcome the full-variety of capacity building initiatives, including small-scale teaching or workshops (online or on site), co-development of research or monitoring infrastructure, master programmes, doctoral programmes, training of local communities or single research projects that include a capacity development component.
After getting an insight in the full bandwidth of capacity development initiatives in this session, we aim to follow-up with a splinter meeting in which the foundation of a European-African Network for Capacity Development in climate change Adaptation research in Africa (NetCDA) will be discussed. The NetCDA network should provide the basis for future exchange, sharing best practices and finding collaborations between various initiatives and institutions. We invite all session participants and other interested climate scientists from both continents to attend this splinter meeting. More details of the timing and location of this splinter meeting will follow.

Humans venture into space to explore the unknown, expand scientific knowledge, and harness the unique resources and opportunities it offers for technological innovation, economic growth, and humanity's long-term survival. This session aims to simultaneously address the application of those sustainability principles to the Earth and outer space and raise human productivity to a new level. By addressing sustainability in both terrestrial and extraterrestrial contexts, the session encourages the development of technologies and policies that ensure the long-term survival and prosperity of human society and drive economic growth and productivity. Integrating sustainable practices into space exploration and Earth management represents a forward-thinking strategy aligning with the global sustainability push. It is a critical area for research, teaching, and practical application related to higher education.

This session’s numerous vital topics will include but not be limited to:

Sustainable Space Exploration

Space-Earth Interlinkages

Policy and Ethical Dimensions

Technological Innovations

Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration

The session proposed is highly relevant to higher education teaching and research. They provide opportunities for curriculum development, foster interdisciplinary collaboration, and align with the strategic goals of preparing students for future challenges and opportunities. By integrating these areas into higher education, institutions can contribute to developing sustainable solutions that address terrestrial and extraterrestrial needs, preparing a new generation of leaders equipped to handle the complexities of sustainable development on Earth and beyond. The outcomes of the session have the potential to significantly boost human productivity by promoting innovation, optimizing resource use, and fostering collaboration across various fields.

The session is envisioned to give students, educators and researchers the opportunity to present and discuss findings from classes, seminars and research projects on the education of future water engineers. Focus is placed on innovative ideas to adapt civil and environmental engineering education, as well as water management programs at colleges and universities. New, holistic ideas are desperately needed in a diametral environment, where climate change and urbanization stress resources and change usage, while transdisciplinary collaboration, combined with technological advances, provide previously inaccessible ways to solve the most pressing water management tasks.

The concept for the session will be built around the findings of an international, online seminar held by three of the four conveners in 2019/2020 (https://doi.org/10.3390/w16131862), which will see a second installment in the spring of 2025. The conveners plan to encourage submissions considering initiatives, projects and research regarding education, (long-term) collaboration and science communication in water management, water policy development and sustainable infrastructure adaptation.

Special attention will be given to ideas aimed at overcoming the historic limits of (sectoral) engineering education, while facilitating transdisciplinary, cross-cultural collaboration - in addition to the adoption of new technologies like gamification and generative artificial intelligence tools.

With this session, the conveners hope to establish a way for researchers, students and practitioners to discuss the future direction of water engineering education beyond gender roles, as well as traditional borders, not only political, but also between fields of research.

Following the success of previous years, this session will explore reasons for the under-representation of different groups (gender identities, sexual orientations, racial and cultural backgrounds, abilities, religions, nationality or geography, socioeconomic status, ages, career stages, etc.) by welcoming debate among scientists, decision-makers and policy analysts in the geosciences.

The session will focus on both obstacles that contribute to under-representation and on best practices and innovative ideas to remove those obstacles. Contributions are solicited on the following topics:

- Role models to inspire and further motivate others (life experience and/or their contributions to promote equality)
- Imbalanced representation, preferably supported by data, for awards, medals, grants, high-level positions, invited talks and papers
- Perceived and real barriers to inclusion (personally, institutionally, culturally)
- Recommendations for new and innovative strategies to identify and overcome barriers
- Gender Equality Plans (GEP) in European host institutions: the good, the bad, and the ugly
- Best practices and strategies to move beyond barriers, including:
• successful mentoring programmes;
• networks that work;
• specific funding schemes;
• examples of host institutions initiatives;

Report on situations that you may have experienced in light of recent socio-political changes.

This session is co-organised with the support of the European Research Council (ERC).

Evidence-based policymaking aims to ground public policies in the best available research and data, ensuring that decisions are informed by robust evidence rather than by ideology, assumptions, or political considerations. To support and inform policy, stakeholders need to engage in a way that addresses needs and develops solutions. To ensure this engagement is effective, it is important to identify the most effective formats for engagement to ensure re-searchers contributions enrich and strengthen local, national or international policy.
This session aims to show how research activities and outputs may impact society and policy beyond the academic world. It will highlight stories of success and failure from scientists who have engaged in policy or other activities that made critical societal impacts – either on an international, European, national, or local level – across different geoscience disciplines. Equally important, the session will also present the role of those working from within political institutions who have facilitated successful science-society-policy-dialogues. It will also aim to examine the various challenges that researchers face when engaging on the science-society-policy interface and various strategies that others have taken to manage and overcome them.

This session is relevant for researchers, policymakers, and those working on the interface from all career levels and science disciplines and will provide space for follow-up questions and a discussion with the participants at the session and at a splinter meeting during EGU25 week.

Climate change represents one of the defining societal challenges of the 21st century. However, the response to this challenge remains largely inadequate across the board. Both in terms of mitigation and adaptation, measures currently taken by countries or companies fall short of what is required to ensure a safe and healthy life for populations around the globe, both today and in the future. The past and continued failure to address climate change results in extreme weather events causing damages and losses, as well as the prospect of further worsening impacts. Insufficient emission reductions exacerbate existing vulnerabilities and lead to increasingly unsafe living conditions in the future. The shortfall in climate action has led citizens to take up legal action to either receive compensation for suffered climate damages or force decision makers to commit to the necessary emissions reductions. In this session, we invite contributions that help bridge the gap between the legal practice of climate litigation and the geosciences. This can include new scientific methods that can support legal efforts, and inter- and transdisciplinary perspectives on how to integrate geoscience insights in litigation, and how to communicate scientific findings to legal practitioners and society at large, in light of legal and ethical aspects of climate change. We also welcome contributions assessing questions of climate change and impact attribution, responsibility, human rights, burden sharing of efforts, translation between science and law, and communication of scientific findings, that link beyond disciplinary boundaries.

Geoethics is essential for tackling global human-caused changes. It integrates ethical considerations into geoscience, improving policy and decision-making. Geoscientists must provide accurate, transparent, and unbiased data to policymakers, ensuring decisions reflect environmental, social, and economic impacts. In times of rapid climate change, resource overexploitation, increasing risks, and environmental damages, geoethics promotes sustainable, just, and respectful geoscience practices. This framework encourages scientifically sound, socially responsible, and environmentally sustainable actions, building trust between scientists, policymakers, and the public through transparency, accountability, and community engagement. In practical terms, integrating geoethics into policymaking and decision-making involves:

a) Building Trust: Highlighting the importance of transparency, accountability, and community engagement in fostering trust between scientists, policymakers, decision-makers, and the public.
b) Transparent Communication: Clearly sharing scientific findings and uncertainties with all stakeholders to support informed and democratic decision-making.
c) Inclusive Practices: Involving local communities, indigenous peoples, and marginalized groups to ensure their voices are heard and their rights respected in geoscientific work.
d) Sustainable Solutions: Focusing on long-term sustainability over short-term gains to ensure resource extraction and land use do not compromise future generations' needs.
e) Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Working with other fields like sociology, economics, and political science to address complex environmental issues holistically.
f) Geoscience Education: Training young people to understand Earth system complexities and prepare the next generation of geoscientists to address global challenges.

By fostering a culture of ethical responsibility, geoscience can guide actions that mitigate adverse effects, promote resilience, and contribute positively to society. Ultimately, geoethics strengthens the capacity of geoscience to inform and influence policy, fostering a more sustainable and equitable future for all.
This session aims to collect and stimulate discussions about ideas, initiatives, project outcomes, tools (including new technologies), and case studies that highlight the positive contributions (as well as exemplify failures) of geoscientists in informing the decision-making and policy-making processes.

Despite an ever-growing body of scientific literature outlining the need for radical transformations, efforts to address the climate and ecological crisis keep falling painfully short of what is necessary. At the same time, the situation continues to worsen as global warming gets dangerously close to 1.5 degrees. While the role of geoscientists has traditionally been to provide neutral information to be used by the public and policy makers, several studies pointed out that the main blockade to urgent climate action is not currently a lack of understanding or awareness or the situation (Oreskes, 2022, The trouble with the supply-side model of science) but rather opposition to necessary transformations by vested interests and powerful actors (Stoddard et al, 2021, Three decades of climate mitigation: Why haven’t we bent the emissions curve?). Our own institutions, universities, and research centers are also failing to rise to the challenge of this crisis and partly contribute to maintaining the status quo (Thierry et al, 2023, No research on a dead planet).
In that context, what role can geoscientists play to contribute to the urgent transformations necessary to mitigate the climate and ecological crisis? To explore this topic, we invite contributions that broadly address the following questions, whether from a theoretical perspective or through firsthand experiences:
– How to engage with civil society, stakeholders and policymakers to ensure that research findings lead to appropriate policies?
– How to assess and reduce the ecological footprint of scientific institutions?
– How to expand outreach and training efforts, in particular to enable under-represented actors, reduce power imbalances in climate politics, and oppose greenwashing?
– Should scientists engage in disruptive actions and civil disobedience to highlight the urgency of the situation, oppose destructive projects, and/or press on problematic actors?
– How can scientific institutions prevent reinforcing the status quo and instead contribute to radical transformations ?
In 2024, presentations considered: Outreach efforts towards policymakers or in rural areas, campaigns for universities to cut ties with the fossil industry, sustainable travel policies for researchers, strategies to debunk greenwashing, barriers to the public engagement of academics, and discussion about academic activism. We particularly encourage submissions presenting interdisciplinary work including social sciences.

Urban spaces comprise the physical dimension of the environment as well as the social, cultural and political dimensions that intersect with diverse human experiences. In recent past, more attention has been drawn to challenges of improving urban spaces in pursuance of the sustainable development goals including clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, industry, innovation and infrastructure. However, the growing connections of urban space issues with gender issues have not taken due consideration of media influences and impact on research and policies on urban space creation, re-creation and preservation across countries. This study entails how living in towns and cities shape and affect societal expectations, behaviours and roles associated with different genders. Additionally, it expands debates on the roles of media forms (such as films, news, advertising, digital platforms and social media) in shaping public perceptions and attitudes toward contexts in urban spaces. From different innovative interdisciplinary perspectives, this session is interested in understanding the narratives, representations and realities behind media and gender complexities. We also seek to unpack how gender understanding and media systems shape policy and decision making for sustainable urban spaces.

Science’s “open era” is here (to stay?). Data and software repositories make it possible to share and collectively develop tools and resources. Diamond open-access publishing and pre-print servers are breaking barriers to knowledge exchange. Free virtual meetings make science more accessible to those interested in listening, or speaking.

The benefits for the community are clear—better communication and more collaboration foster scientific advancement. It is therefore surprising that the vast majority of data-, tool-, and knowledge-sharing initiatives rely on the community and the community alone, without financial support from funding bodies and more often than not lacking the recognition they deserve.

We aim to bring together individuals and teams who have, in any way, served the wider geoscience community through knowledge, data, or tool creation and/or distribution. Such efforts include—but are not limited to—online learning platforms, transdisciplinary databases, open-access software and publishing.

Ultimately, this session seeks to:
1. Be a space for sharing, advertising, discussing, and recognising the value of existing resources and initiatives
2. Discuss the challenges faced by those behind them (i.e., lack of funding and institutional support) and possible strategies to eliminate these
3. Inspire new efforts, initiatives, and projects

To provide support for decision making, computational modeling workflows in geoscientific simulation need to be efficient, reproducible, and transparent. Further, the community strives for new standards related to open and inclusive practices. Open and transparent workflows allow for detailed scrutiny of the techniques, assumptions, and interpretations of data, models, and their uncertainties. Such workflows also address issues of inclusion and diversity by providing all details of the path from data to results which can benefit all stakeholders, (more) independent of their background. Advancements in software engineering and data hosting provide sophisticated tools to improve transparency, reproducibility, and accessibility of all steps of the modeling chain.

For this session, we seek contributions of open-source tools and workflows striving for these goals. We aim to stimulate discussion based on lessons learned from challenges as well as success stories.

Software tools may include, but are not limited to:
• techniques to automate modeling workflow elements or increase efficiency, reproducibility, robustness of decision-support modeling elements.
• frameworks to build models from original data in flexible ways that may enable hypothesis testing in the form of changing discretization, process representation, and other modeling decisions.
• multi-model frameworks such as Bayesian-model selection/combination, as well as frameworks to accommodate model structural error.
• Methods for uncertainty analysis, data assimilation, and management optimization under uncertainty in the decision-support context.
• machine-learning approaches for decision support analyses.

Sitting under a tree, you feel the spark of an idea, and suddenly everything falls into place. The following days and tests confirm: you have made a magnificent discovery — so the classical story of scientific genius goes…

But science as a human activity is error-prone, and might be more adequately described as "trial and error", or as a process of successful "tinkering" (Knorr, 1979). Thus we want to turn the story around, and ask you to share 1) those ideas that seemed magnificent but turned out not to be, and 2) the errors, bugs, and mistakes in your work that made the scientific road bumpy. What ideas were torn down or did not work, and what concepts survived in the ashes or were robust despite errors? We explicitly solicit Blunders, Unexpected Glitches, and Surprises (BUGS) from modeling and field or lab experiments and from all disciplines of the Geosciences.

Handling mistakes and setbacks is a key skill of scientists. Yet, we publish only those parts of our research that did work. That is also because a study may have better chances to be accepted for publication in the scientific literature if it confirms an accepted theory or if it reaches a positive result (publication bias). Conversely, the cases that fail in their test of a new method or idea often end up in a drawer (which is why publication bias is also sometimes called the "file drawer effect"). This is potentially a waste of time and resources within our community as other scientists may set about testing the same idea or model setup without being aware of previous failed attempts.

In the spirit of open science, we want to bring the BUGS out of the drawers and into the spotlight. In a friendly atmosphere, we will learn from each others' mistakes, understand the impact of errors and abandoned paths onto our work, and generate new insights for our science or scientific practice.

Here are some ideas for contributions that we would love to see:
- Ideas that sounded good at first, but turned out to not work.
- Results that presented themselves as great in the first place but turned out to be caused by a bug or measurement error.
- Errors and slip-ups that resulted in insights.
- Failed experiments and negative results.
- Obstacles and dead ends you found and would like to warn others about.

--
Knorr, Karin D. “Tinkering toward Success: Prelude to a Theory of Scientific Practice.” Theory and Society 8, no. 3 (1979): 347–76.

Global challenges, such as climate change and natural hazards, are becoming increasingly complex and interdependent, and solutions have to be global in scope and based on a firm scientific understanding of the challenges we face. At the same time, Science and technology are playing an increasingly important role in a complex geopolitical landscape. In this difficult setting, scientific collaboration can not only be used to help address global challenges but also to foster international relations and build bridges across geopolitical divisions. Science diplomacy is a broad term used both to describe the various roles that science and researchers play in bridging geopolitical gaps and finding solutions to international issues, and also the study of how science intertwines with diplomacy in pursuing these goals


During this Short Course, experts will introduce key science diplomacy concepts and outline the skills that are required to effectively engage in science diplomacy. They will also provide practical insights on how researchers can actively participate in science diplomacy, explore real-life examples of science diplomacy, and highlight resources where participants can learn more about science diplomacy moving forward.

This Short Course is of interest to researchers from all disciplines and career levels.

Database documentation and sharing is a crucial part of the scientific process, and more scientists are choosing to share their data on centralised data repositories. These repositories have the advantage of guaranteeing immutability (i.e., the data cannot change), which is not so amenable to developing living databases (e.g., in continuous citizen science initiatives). At the same time, citizen science initiatives are becoming more and more popular in various fields of science, from natural hazards to hydrology, ecology and agronomy.

In this context, distributed databases offer an innovative approach to both data sharing and evolution. These systems have the distinct advantage of becoming more resilient and available as more users access the same data, and as distributed systems, contrarily to decentralised ones, do not use blockchain technology, they are orders of magnitude more efficient in data storage as well as completely free to use. Distributed databases can also mirror exising data, so that scientists can keep working in their preferred Excel, OpenOffice, or other software while automatically syncing database changes to the distributed web in real time.

This workshop will present the general concepts behind distributed, peer-to-peer systems. Attendees will then be guided through an interactive activity on Constellation, a scientific software for distributed databases, learning how to both create their own databases as well as access and use others' data from the network. Potential applications include citizen science projects for hydrological data collection, invasive species monitoring, or community participation in managing natural hazards such as floods.

In this short course we will address the increasing role of artificial intelligence (AI) in geoscientific research, guiding participants through the various stages of the research process where AI tools can be effectively implemented, however with responsibility. We will explore freely available AI tools that can be used for data analysis, model development, and research publication. Additionally, the course aims to provoke reflections on the ethical implications of AI use, addressing concerns such as data bias, transparency, and the potential for misuse. Participants will engage in interactive discussions to explore what constitutes responsible and acceptable use of AI in geoscientific research, aiming to establish a set of best practices for integrating AI into scientific workflows.

Values, principles and behaviours (VPBs) underlie geoethics and geoscience. Can we understand or build geoethics or conduct geoscience without reference to these VPBs? How do VPBs influence our professional practice in geoethics and in the geosciences? How are geoethical values, geoethical principles, geoethical behaviours and geoscience related?

Those are some of the questions that we wish to raise in our short course. Values include honesty, compassion, quality, objectivity, truth, respect, justice, peace and beauty. Principles generally make values explicit and are often embodied in ‘dictates’, such as thou shalt not kill, treat all people fairly, be supportive towards others, be humble in success and steadfast in adversity, take responsibility, etc. Behaviour is driven by both values and principles; it is a pattern of action (climate as opposed to weather, if you will). Examples might include striving for quality, being harsh on subordinates, being economical with the truth, being sensitive to others, using logic.

Often an ethical dilemma stems from two or more underlying value conflicts, such as individual identity and social value. It is not easy to understand the dynamics of such relations. Values clarification exercises are often used to enable people together to work through complex issues in which differing, contradictory or hidden values may influence beliefs, principles and behaviours, including decisions. Such exercises allow us to become more aware of the ways in which values relate to our geoethical and geoscience activities.

This Short Course will be conducted in a workshop format:
a. starting with short overviews of geoethics and of clarification exercises;
b. followed by a hands-on, small-group session; and
c. ending with a debriefing session and a discussion.

Both experts and novices in geoethical VPBs are welcome in this Short Course; teachers, researchers and students will benefit. If you wish to do a little preparation before the course, these may be useful:
https://www.lyellcollection.org/doi/10.1144/SP508-2020-191, or
https://presentations.copernicus.org/EGU21/EGU21-604_presentation.pdf

Please bring some blank paper and a pen. Also, bring your critical thinking skills and your powers of logic.

How can scientists and governments ensure that their communication resonates more deeply with citizens without resorting to the manipulative tactics used by those who seek to undermine liberal democracy? How can scientific and government actors ensure their communications are equally meaningful and ethical?

This Short Course will combine insights from state-of-the-art scientific knowledge, novel empirical research on values-targeted communication strategies, and a deep understanding of practitioners’ and citizens’ attitudes on these topics. Examples from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre will be used to share practical guidance for scientists who need to successfully navigate the policy world.

A two-and-a-half-day teacher enhancement workshop proposed by Education Committee. GIFT 2025 will propose lectures, hands-on activities and poster session for 80 teachers selected in Europe.
In 2025, the topic will be: 'Exploring the sea floor’.

The EGU Education Committee organises Geosciences Information for Teachers (GIFT) workshops. This poster session focuses on 'Discovering the oceans and the sea floor in class'. Abstract submission is open for teachers participating in the GIFT workshop and for all other authors.

The EGU Education Committee (EC) organise Geosciences Information for Teachers (GIFT) workshop with some practical sessions. The topic 2025 is 'Exploring the sea floor'
Four practical sessions with resources that are easy to use in the classroom will be presented to the teachers during GIFT. An extra room will be asked for these hands-on time blocks.

The session aims to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange between educators, academic institutions, and science communicators to enhance Earth Science education at the upper secondary level. Earth Science is a compulsory topic in several European upper secondary school curricula and a critical subject for understanding global challenges, but often lacks prominence in secondary education activities. This evidence is confirmed by the decreasing number of students enrolled in earth science degrees at university level. This session will showcase projects, teaching strategies, and educational resources designed to engage students and increase the relevance of Earth Science in the classroom. Presentations will highlight successful initiatives from teachers, schools, universities, and outreach programs, offering a platform for discussing best practices and challenges. Participants are invited to share their experiences and ideas to create a stronger network of support for Earth Science education.