Across Europe and in many resource-dependent advanced economies, the number of undergraduate students enrolling in geoscience programmes and pursuing careers in the field has been declining. Factors often cited include limited visibility and narrow scope of geoscience subjects in the school curricula, accessibility issues, better access to local programmes so students do not need to travel abroad, misconceptions about career prospects, and a general lack of awareness of the societal relevance of geoscience. Yet, there are encouraging examples of institutions and initiatives successfully reversing this trend. These cases highlight opportunities for innovation in how geoscience is taught, communicated, and connected to pressing societal challenges.

This special discussion session will reframe the issue — viewing the decline not merely as a problem, but as an opportunity for the geoscience community to co-create new pathways with young people. We will aim to explore questions such as:

• How do young people today perceive geoscience, and what shapes these perceptions?
• What are the barriers preventing students from considering geoscience studies or careers?
• How can educators, geoscientists, and communicators engage with students to reimagine geoscience education and career path options?
• How can geoscientists highlight the vital role of geoscience in addressing societal and environmental challenges?

In this session, we will seek to generate insights and creative strategies to “turn the tide” — inspiring the next generation to see geoscience as essential, exciting, and impactful. This will be done through a dynamic panel discussion with solicited speakers and conveners, featuring geoscientists, school students, educators and science communicators.

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, influencing sustainable behaviour change, improving decision making, and/or community building. Channels to facilitate science communication can include in-person interaction through teaching and outreach programs, and online through social media, mass media, podcasts, video, 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 are you doing it?
What are the biggest challenges or successes you’ve had in engaging the public with your work?
How are other disciplines (such as social sciences) informing understanding of audiences, strategies, or effects?
How do you spark joy and foster emotional connection through activities?
How do you allow for co-creation of ideas within a community?
How are you assessing and measuring the positive impacts on society of your endeavours?
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, is a powerful tool for cognitive learning and delivering messages that reignite a sense of beauty and responsibility. 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 the earth sciences, 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 address these challenges, science-art collaborations create new pathways for research and dialogue, offering a humane and emotional context through artistic expression. However, this combination is no only about art communicating science. When the two come together on an equal playing field, new ideas and languages emerge. This session aims to explore these interdisciplinary conversations. By symbiotically blending STEM and the arts, we hope to foster discussions on how these disciplines can collaborate to explore, communicate, and pro-actively respond to the societal, economic, political, and environmental issues we face—ultimately driving more effective emotional response leading to 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.

All science has uncertainty. Global challenges such as disaster risk, environmental degradation, 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. Uncertainty communication can play a major role across the risk management cycle, especially during decision-making, and should be tailored to the audience and the timing of delivery. Therefore, research on quantification and communication of uncertainties deepens our understanding of how to make scientific evidence more actionable in critical moments.

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.

Resilience building requires effective communication, teaching and understanding of hazard and risk. Traditional outreach methods often struggle to engage diverse audiences; connect science and practice; or influence policy. Innovative approaches can address some of these challenges. For example, digital tools such as serious games, (massive) open online courses (MOOCs), simulations and immersive virtual/augmented reality can bring hazard scenarios to life. Equally, non-digital methods such as role-play, participatory mapping, classroom activities and tabletop demonstrations can foster engagement and deeper understanding of risk. This session welcomes abstracts that explore the development, application and evaluation of education and communication innovations across a spectrum: from primary through the postgraduate learning, and from public to expert engagement. We particularly welcome contributions of serious games, VR/AR simulations and digital platforms in addition to non-digital methods such as classroom demonstrations and participatory activities. Presentations that reflect on co-production with stakeholders, inclusivity and approaches for evaluating outcomes are strongly encouraged. In this session, we hope to bring together researchers, educators and practitioners to share best practice, showcase cutting-edge tools and teaching methods, and critically reflect on the role of innovation in hazard and risk education and communication. We plan on having a PICO session to ensure a lively combination of discussion and poster presentation.

Virtual, and augmented, and mixed reality (VR/AR/MR), along with immersive visualization environments, and related interactive techniques are rapidly transforming the way we communicate, teach, explore, and conduct geoscientific research. These technologies allow learners, stakeholders, and researchers to experience complex processes and datasets in new and engaging ways, from exploring outcrops and landscapes virtually to interacting with model simulations in three dimensions. Their potential spans education and outreach, where they enhance accessibility and engagement for diverse audiences, as well as scientific research itself, where immersive environments can provide novel perspectives on data analysis, hypothesis testing, and collaborative work.

This session invites contributions showcasing innovative uses of virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, and other immersive techniques across the geosciences. We particularly welcome examples from education, outreach, citizen science, and communication, as well as case studies and technical developments that demonstrate the added value of immersive approaches for scientific discovery. We also encourage critical perspectives addressing challenges such as accessibility, reproducibility, sustainability, and pedagogy. The session aims to foster exchange between developers and users, between research and education, and across disciplinary boundaries to highlight best practices and future opportunities for immersive technologies in geoscience.

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!

In the Anthropocene, water resources are under unprecedented stress. It has become more important than ever to not only thoroughly understand the hydrological cycle but also its interactions with other complex physical systems and social dimensions to address water-related challenges and develop actionable, sustainable solutions. To do this effectively, we need to move beyond a “science-as-usual” approach and leverage transdisciplinary knowledge involving multiple actors, including scientists, policymakers, local communities and indigenous peoples, NGOs and local associations, media, and businesses. Each of these actors brings a unique perspective and expertise, and we must empower and value their contributions with practices such as co-creation, to arrive at integrated solutions for complex water management issues. This vision is within the framework of the IAHS HELPING (Hydrology Engaging Local People IN one Global world) decade aiming to empower bottom-up approaches that involve local stakeholders and more importantly local know-how. In this context, co-creation can be defined as an iterative and collaborative process centered on water-related management challenge(s) and/or hydrological question(s) that integrates different forms and origins of knowledge aiming to address complex societal issues. Such approaches are common in policy creation and public services development but up until now have been under-described, -formalized, and -utilized in the context of water resources management and hydrological sciences.
Therefore, this session welcomes studies on co-creation approaches in hydrology and water resources management. More specifically, we welcome studies including, but not limited to: experiences and case studies of participatory and co-creation approaches applied to hydrology and water resources management; co-modelling approaches and socio-hydrological studies involving participation of stakeholders; meta-analyses, review of other experiences, and literature reviews; critical geography, political ecology, new conceptual frameworks, and other critical approaches to co-creation and stakeholders involvement in water resources decision making.

Co-organized by the Working Group on Co-Creation of Water Knowledge of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences: https://iahs.info/Initiatives/Scientific-Decades/helping-working-groups/co-creating-water-knowledge/

Are you unsure about how to bring order in the extensive program of the General Assembly? Are you wondering how to tackle this week of science? Are you curious about what EGU and the General Assembly have to offer? Then this is the short course for you!

During this course, we will provide you with tips and tricks on how to handle this large conference and how to make the most out of your week at this year's General Assembly. We'll explain the EGU structure, the difference between EGU and the General Assembly, we will dive into the program groups and we will introduce some key persons that help the Union function.

This is a useful short course for first-time attendees, those who have previously only joined us online, and those who haven’t been to Vienna for a while!

Building on our successful EGU25 short course on research proposal writing, we are excited to propose another short course session focused on writing compelling research proposals for funding and research positions. With a visible gap in opportunities between researchers in the Global South and the Global North, and with a decline in research budget across the globe, the ability to secure funding is important to stand out in academia. However, securing this funding or position still hinges on the strength of a research proposal.
To address this need, we have designed a short interactive course dedicated to the art of writing strong research proposals for securing either a research position or proposal funding. This session will offer practical techniques and tips for creating compelling proposals and will include an open discussion. Additionally, we will provide insights from funding agencies based in Global South countries, highlighting the key elements they look for in proposals and opportunities. This course is valuable for researchers at all career stages, with a particular emphasis on Early Career Researchers (ECRs) looking to enhance their proposal-writing skills. Participants will benefit from:
1. Researchers' Perspective: Learn from successful grant recipients about the crucial points to consider when writing a research proposal.
2. Funding Agency Perspective: Gain insights from representatives of funding agencies in the Global South on their requirements and expectations - Lesser-known opportunities available to ECRs
3. ECRs Perspective: Hear from fellow participants about their experiences and challenges in research proposal writing.
This short course is open to everyone with an interest in improving their proposal writing skills. ECRs from the Global South are especially encouraged to participate as they will be provided with an opportunity to interact with researchers and funding agency representatives, gaining valuable insights into their expectations and experiences. For more information or inquiries, please feel free to contact the course convener.

Communicating science to the general public is a shared challenge across geoscientific disciplines. Nevertheless, conveying our messages is of utmost importance, particularly in the context of global challenges such as climate change. It can be especially fruitful when shared with the youngest, yet most affected, stakeholder group: children.
This interactive short course offers a unique opportunity for scientists, educators, and artists to come together and exchange tools, insights, and experiences related to geoscience education for children. Following a keynote by expert Takahi Kosaki, we will showcase a wide range of educational materials, concepts, and methods in a “market stall” format, where participants will be guided through.
After the tour, participants will have time to explore the materials independently and engage in direct conversations. A dedicated table will also be available for attendees to display and share their own resources from past or ongoing programs. All presented materials will be collected and made accessible via an online drive.
The aim of this short course is to share knowledge and available materials on geoscience education for children, connect interested participants, and inspire future collaborations and the development of educational programs.

Writing is difficult. Like most geoscientists, you might struggle, especially if your native tongue is not English. Writing is a skill best learnt by practice, lots of it, ideally with immediate peer feedback. It can also be a lonely job. In this hands-on, participatory workshop you will work on a writing task with colleagues, sharing inspiration and getting immediate feedback. The task illustrates in vivid fashion some key elements of writing.

This Short Course will be a *workshop* including the following:
1. Quick intros [5 mins]
2. An enjoyable, small-group writing game, with immediate feedback [40 mins]
3. Small-group debrief [25 mins]
4. A Q&A session with journal editors [30 mins]
5. Wrap-up [10 mins]

As editors of the EGU journal, Geoscience Communication, we believe that this workshop will be of use to all authors, although we particularly encourage beginners and those of intermediate experience to attend.

It might be possible to use a short, and not-too-technical, paragraph of yours in the workshop and suggest improvements. If you would like to do that, please see the Additional Information below.

Please note that some workshop materials will allow up to a maximum of 20 participants, on a first-come basis. Additional people will be invited to conduct guided observation in silence during the exercises, and then to contribute actively during the debriefing and discussion.

Please bring some blank paper, a pen and an internet-enabled laptop or telephone (with QR code capability).

The scientific communication landscape in the digital era is rapidly becoming all about effectively delivering ideas in brief. As scientific conferences move from longer physical meetings to more condensed hybrid formats, not only are short presentations necessary for pitching yourself to senior scientists or your next entrepreneurial venture to Venture Capitalists, but also for promoting your research. The opportunities of networking rarely reveal themselves, unless you are able to tell a brief, informative, and compelling story about you and your research.
It is truly an art to engage people through these short presentations and ignite a fire in their hearts, which will burn long enough for them to remember you and reach out to you later about relevant opportunities. While practice makes perfect is the mantra for delivering power-packed short presentations, there are several tricks to make your content stand out and set yourself apart from the crowd.
In this hybrid format course, we will bring together ideas and tips from years of sci-comm experience to provide you a one stop shop with the tricks of the trade. Finally, a hands-on exercise where participants will receive structured feedback on all aspects of their talk will help solidify the learning outcomes. The learning objectives of this short course are as follows:

- Structuring a killer elevator pitch – learning from 1/2/3-min examples
- Knowing your audience – harnessing the power of tailored openings/closings
- Captivating delivery – leveraging body language to your advantage
- Harnessing creativity - choosing the right medium
- Enunciating to engage – communicating across borders
- Effectively practising your pitch – making the best of your time

Early career and underrepresented scientists are particularly encouraged to participate as they can gain the most from the learning outcomes of this short course.

Your geoscience is important. It can change thinking and practice in the world if you communicate it well! To be the best communicators we can, and to get proper credit for approaches that work and inspire, it is important to publish on best practice. This session is to help you publish research about the tools, tips and techniques you use, or the impact of your educational, outreach, or engagement (e.g. with government, industry) work.

The session is a task-led workshop and will consist of roughly 10 mins of us talking, followed by 15 mins of Q&A, then we will break into group-based activities to build your confidence led by an editor of the journal Geoscience Communication editor. It doesn’t matter if you know very little already. No question is too basic, and no prior knowledge is needed.

The activities will include:
● 'Plan a project' - sketch out a project plan (e.g. a flow chart) for research-led communication.
● 'Help me with my idea' - a safe space to get 1-to-1 input from a Geoscience Communications editor.
● 'Editor for the day' - understand the review process infinitely better with an exercise in which you are editor for a GC insights article.

The questions can answer include:
● How do I get started? - I’ve got a great outreach idea, but how do I do it as research and contribute to best practice?
● How do I collect evidence / data? – The guts e.g. methods & statistics
● What does robust ‘research’ about communication look like? i.e. what a paper needs.

We hope the workshop will benefit burgeoning communicators at any career stage. Or, if you’re an experienced geoscience communication practitioner, then we can help you get the reputational benefit that comes with publication.

Peer-review is the heart of quality control when it comes to publishing our scientific results. It is almost exclusively based on voluntary service by the scientific community itself. Yet peer-reviewers are currently the most limited human resource in scientific publishing. Insights about the peer-review process are essential for the successful publication of your manuscript, but the prospect of reviewing scientific manuscripts can appear daunting, especially to early career scientists (ECS). Open questions regarding the role as reviewer, expectations by the journal editors, and the degree of detail, but also ethical responsibilities may lead to doubts. This short course offers the opportunity to meet editors of internationally renowned journals to get answers to those questions and to eliminate the doubts regarding one’s aptitude as a reviewer:
• How is the peer-review process organized? How do editors search for and select reviewers?
• Which forms of peer review exist and what are the main differences?
• Tips for my first review: What to focus on and how to structure?
• What are (and are not!) the duties and roles of reviewers?
• What are the ethical responsibilities of reviewers? How do I deal with conflicts of interest?
• What are the benefits of voluntary peer-reviewing?
As part of the course, the EGU peer-review model and the details specific to the EGU journals will be presented. This includes the advantages of the EGU’s interactive open access publishing with multi-stage open peer review. Participants will have the opportunity to indicate their interest in the next edition of the EGU Peer Review Training (Fall 2026), where hands-on experience will be provided through the review of preprints on EGUsphere.
In this short course, there will be plenty of opportunity to raise follow-up questions and have an open discussion about how to become comfortable in the role as reviewer. The short course might be interesting for ECS conducting their first reviews but also for advanced scientists willing to share their experiences as reviewers (and authors).

How can you ensure your research is heard within your community and beyond? Reaching the public, policymakers, or journalists requires more than good science: it takes clear and engaging communication. This short course will provide guidance on how you can share your work through press releases, blogs, and media interviews. You will learn practical tips for writing popular science pieces, how to avoid common mistakes when speaking to the media, and how to get ready for interviews. Join us to get tips to build confidence and develop essential skills to communicate your science clearly and engage with a wider audience.

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.

Your high impact journal demands reproducible research, but your reviewers don't have access to your supercomputer...

You want colleagues in another country to work with the petabytes of data you created, but they cannot access your server easily...

You want your students to run the analysis you did for one region on any other region in the world, but don't want to manage the dependencies on their laptops...

In this short course we will give you hands on experience on how to create, publish and share workflows that are 'reproducible by design'. Using openly published Jupyterbooks, online JupyterHubs, git-pullers, open interfaces and data formats you will build a reproducible workflow in a single short course! Based on a decade of work with the eWaterCycle project for Open and FAIR hydrological modelling, we will teach the best practices in making modelling studies, even when requiring High Performance Computing resources, truly reproducible.

Bring a laptop, but no need to install anything: everything will be online!

Researchers are not only expected to conduct high-quality research, but also to communicate their findings effectively to both the scientific community and the public. This requires a skillset that is often not formally taught during academic training. Presenting your work and answering questions on stage can feel daunting and nerve-wracking. In this short course, we create a supportive environment to help you overcome these fears. Experienced and enthusiastic presenters will teach practical strategies to manage presentation anxiety and you can immediately put them into practice through short pitching exercises.
The first 45 minutes of the course are hybrid. For the second half of the course, participation is only possible on-site.

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 with a particular interest in current innovations and trends in geoscience education research. 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 e.g. generative AI and chat bots, 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.

This year we have a strong subtheme in practices which support collaborative, peer-based, and interdisciplinary learning in geoscience and sustainability, across educational levels—from bachelor's and master's to doctoral programmes, and early-career development.

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, reflect and develop effective practice and educational scholarship.

We are experiencing a revolution in earth and environmental data. Satellites, genetic sequencing, long-term in situ sensors, model results and reanalyses, digitized collections, social media, and citizen science are producing massive datasets, requiring students in earth and environmental sciences to learn scientific computing skills to use them. However, many educational institutions are not meeting this need -- most students in these degree programs report only learning these essential skills informally from peers and mentors if they learn them at all. In this session, we invite researchers and educators with innovative solutions to this gap in earth and environmental science education to share their successful programs, courses, and interventions. We are particularly interested in highlighting initiatives with a proven track record of targeting and including intersectional identities traditionally under-represented among earth, environmental and/or computer scientists.

Science is best learned by doing, yet starting out is rarely easy. This session invites reflections on the challenges encountered during research, from forgetting a screwdriver during a field day, to not being able to compile software. Sharing challenges and their solutions is critical for Early-Career Scientists, as it can (1) lead to the development of better protocols for fieldwork, modeling, and data analysis, (2) reduce impostor syndrome while doing science, and (3) highlight the human side of science, not only in papers and conferences, but also in the people and their experiences behind them.

The goal of this session is to bring together a wide variety of experiences, stories and people. We invite submissions from any geoscientific field in two specific categories:

First, any submissions that showcase a specific problem, your Eureka moment if there was one, and your solution to it. The goal of such submissions should be to show that unforeseen problems happen to everyone, but that it is possible to overcome these. Examples may include (but are not limited to):
• Designing computing codes that run with fewer computational resources
• Using sensors, technologies, and data beyond their traditional applications
• Developing computational workflows that integrate different approaches in novel ways (e.g., machine learning, trap cameras, and social media)
• Merging methods from several disciplines into new approaches.
• Building automation methodologies that avoid errors while using high-performance computing.

Second, any submissions that provide an Early Career Perspective on the grand challenges in your specific field or the geosciences as a whole, and your proposed solutions to these. Examples may include (but are not limited to):
• Community initiatives that facilitate the use of fieldwork techniques and computational resources.
• Grand challenges framing from a perspective that highlights inclusivity, diversity, and equality.
• Community perspectives and synthesis to reduce barriers of entry in transdisciplinary paths focused on problem-solving.
• Juggling how problem-solving was applied to a research career (e.g., kids, migration)

This course explores how to integrate diverse knowledge systems, norms, and perspectives in hydrology, water management, and climate-related research through co-creation. More than a buzzword, co-creation is a collaborative process that requires time, mutual trust, and shared responsibility. When practiced meaningfully, it helps to avoid overlooking community priorities, practices, and perspectives, and power asymmetries – including gender inequalities, racism, and colonial injustices.

We will present a framework, case studies, and principles to adopt co-creation in research and practice, with a focus on hydrology, water resources management, and climate services. Together, we will discuss both challenges and achievements when diverse stakeholders, including researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and local communities, work together.

Through shared experiences and practical examples, participants will gain strategies for facilitating inclusive, resilient, and impactful co-creation processes. By the end of the session, you will leave with new insights, strategies, and inspiration for applying co-creation in your own projects, while being more aware of both the potential and its possible hurdles of this collaborative approach.

This session aims to highlight and discuss the diverse experiences of women in the geosciences, as well as the challenges and opportunities they encounter throughout their careers. We welcome contributions that share personal perspectives, institutional practices, leadership roles in projects and research addressing gender equity in geoscience. Topics may include, but are not limited to: career progression, work–life balance, mentoring and role models, fieldwork experiences, inclusivity in research teams, and structural or cultural barriers within academia, industry, and policy.
We particularly encourage submissions that offer solutions, best practices, or new initiatives fostering a more inclusive geoscience community. By bringing together these contributions, the session seeks to promote dialogue, raise awareness, and inspire actionable steps toward greater gender equity and diversity in the field.

In 2016, the first of this session series was organised. In a moment of general turbulence for EDI actions, come to celebrate with us and to help us to build bridges and long-lasting actions of fairness in the geosciences. Following the success of last 10 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;
• examples of conferences and meetings initiatives;
Reports on situations that you may have experienced considering recent socio-political changes and attacks on EDI activities are encouraged.

This session is co-organised with the support of the European Research Council (ERC).
Conveners will propose a special issue based on multi-annual contributions of the session, and if accepted, it will be published as a collection of papers within a specific journal or series.

Geoscientists play a key role in providing essential information in decision-making processes that consider environmental, social, and economic consequences of geoscience work. Therefore, their responsibilities extend beyond scientific analysis alone. Global challenges, such as climate change, resource management, and disaster risk reduction, push geoscientists to expand their role beyond research and to engage ethically in public efforts.
Geoethics provides a framework for reflecting on the ethical, social, and cultural implications of geoscience in research, practice, and education, guiding responsible action for society and the environment. It also encourages the scientific community to move beyond purely technical solutions by embracing just, inclusive, and transformative approaches to socio-environmental issues.
Furthermore, science is inseparable from social and geopolitical contexts. These conditions shape what research is funded, whose knowledge is valued, with whom we collaborate, and who has access to conferences. As Earth and planetary scientists, we must consider the human and environmental consequences of our work. This is especially true in Earth observation, where many satellites have both scientific and military applications, and where scientific tools have at times enabled ecocide and resource exploitation under neocolonial systems.
This session will offer insights and reflections across a wide range of topics, from theoretical considerations to case studies, foster awareness and discussion of sensitive issues at the geoscience–society interface and explore how geoethics can guide responsible behavior and policies in the geosciences.

This session is dedicated to celebrating 25 years of interactive open access publishing (IOAP), the publication model that is applied in all EGU journals. All abstracts for this session will be provided by the executive/chief editors of the EGU journals and its compilations.

To mark this milestone for the EGU publications and IOAP, the session showcases the full EGU publishing portfolio: EGUsphere, all EGU journals, and additional publications such as EGU Letters and the Encyclopedia of Geosciences and particular features of EGU’s transparent, community-driven and not-for-profit publishing approach.

All current and prospective authors, referees and editors are invited to join this celebration, meet the EGU Executive/Chief editors, explore the EGU publications and discover how to get involved in shaping the future of the EGU publications.

The journey of IOAP began in 2001, when Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics was launched as the first journal to apply the interactive open access publishing model. Now adopted across all EGU/Copernicus journals, the multi-stage publishing approach combines public peer review with transparent interactive discussion, encouraging participation of the scientific community in the evaluation of preprints prior to final journal publication. The multiple stages consist of EGUsphere, EGU’s interactive community platform for the discussion of preprints, that is seamlessly integrated into the editorial journal workflow. EGU Letters represent a third stage, where particularly outstanding journal papers are selected to receive additional scientific recognition following rigorous review.

Since then, more than 50,000 journal articles and 60,000 preprints were published, accompanied by over 250,000 comments from authors, referees, editors and other members of the scientific community. This transparent process strengthens scientific quality control and helps reduce the risks of bias, fraud, and plagiarism in scholarly publishing. This session recognizes these achievements as part of EGU’s ongoing efforts to advance open, transparent, and community-driven publishing.

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". Handling mistakes and setbacks is therefore 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 scientific publication if it confirms an accepted theory or 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.

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. In the spirit of open science and in an interdisciplinary setting, we want to bring the BUGS out of the drawers and into the spotlight. 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.

In a friendly atmosphere, we will learn from each other’s mistakes, understand the impact of errors and abandoned paths on our work, give each other ideas for shared problems, 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.

For inspiration, see last year's collection of BUGS - ranging from clay bricks to atmospheric temperature extremes - at https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU25/session/52496.

Policy development and decision-making require robust science-based evidence to address societal challenges. Scientific data and analysis are also crucial for drafting or updating regulation to ensure the most relevant, and state-of-the-art methodologies are used to support effective laws and procedures. Although some mechanisms are being created to provide knowledge-based advice to policymakers, the pathways for scientists to engage and support the process of decision-making and regulation development are often unclear. Therefore, there is a need among the scientific community to share experiences and best practices to enrich decision-making at local, regional-national and European/international levels.
This session will demonstrate examples of successful, as well as lessons learnt from ineffective, engagement of geoscientists in policy design, regulation design, decision-makings and other actions in a political context, to deliver on societal benefits beyond academia. Challenges, main barriers encountered and strategies to overcome them will be examined.
The session will also showcase the role of stakeholders working with political institutions and how engagement with the scientific community can trigger fruitful deliberations between science, policy and society.
The session also aims at showcasing the outcome of evidence-based regulations addressing societal challenges, such as climate change effects or sustainable use of natural resources.
This session is aimed at researchers, policymakers and those working at the interface, from all career stages and disciplines. It will provide a space for questions and discussion, along with ample networking opportunities, including during the proposed associated Splinter Meeting during EGU 2026 week.

Climate change is one of the defining societal challenges of the 21st century, and its impacts increasingly affect communities worldwide. Despite growing evidence, political and societal responses remain inadequate for mitigation, adaptation, and loss and damage, resulting in persistent vulnerabilities, more frequent and intense extreme weather events, and accumulating impacts on societies and ecosystems. This shortfall in climate action has prompted citizens and organizations to pursue legal action—seeking remedies for climate-related damages and putting pressure on decision-makers to commit to and implement meaningful emission reductions. Among many important recent developments, the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has highlighted the crucial role of climate science in litigation and policymaking, specifying that climate action must be grounded in the best available scientific evidence. This interdisciplinary session invites contributions that advance the integration of insights from the geosciences into legal practice. We welcome new scientific methods to support legal arguments, as well as inter- and transdisciplinary approaches on the integration of scientific insights in climate litigation, and on the effective communication of scientific findings to legal practitioners and the broader society. Submissions may also address questions of climate change and impact attribution, responsibility, human and environmental rights, burden sharing of efforts, translation between science and law, and science communication, that link beyond disciplinary boundaries. Please note that all first authors of an abstract to any Programme Group (PG) within the General Assembly are allowed to also submit a second regular abstract to an Education and Outreach Session (EOS)-led session like this one.

This session addresses the growing challenges of water resources management under accelerating climate change and intensifying anthropogenic pressures, with a primary focus on Africa and Mediterranean region, complemented by insights from other climate-vulnerable contexts. Climate variability, rapid urbanization, agricultural expansion, ecosystem degradation, and population growth are placing increasing pressure on already stressed hydrological systems, underscoring the urgent need for equitable, cooperative, and climate-resilient water governance frameworks.

The session explores how action-oriented research, innovation, modelling, capacity development, and multi-stakeholder cooperation can support more adaptive and inclusive water management pathways. It emphasizes translating scientific knowledge into institutional strengthening, system thinking, policy processes, and practical implementation, while moving beyond monosectoral approaches toward integrated strategies that address equity, allocation trade-offs, and governance under a changing hydrological cycle.

We invite interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary contributions advancing water management under climate stress, with broader relevance through comparative or transferable lessons. Contributions may include:
- Climate-resilient and equitable water management case studies,
- Capacity development initiatives in water governance and climate adaptation,
- Cross-sectoral partnerships and co-production processes,
- Innovative tools and methodologies, including monitoring, Earth observation, modelling, digital twin, and decision-support systems,
- Governance and policy instruments promoting fairness and resilience.

By combining insights from African and Mediterranean experiences, the session seeks to identify scalable and context-sensitive pathways for cooperative and sustainable water resources management. Through dialogue and synthesis, it aims to generate actionable insights for water policy and practice and contribute to global debates on water governance and climate resilience.
All session participants are invited to attend a townhall (splinter) meeting associated with this session. Further details will be communicated in due course.

Values clarification exercises are often used to enable people together to work through complex issues in which differing, contradictory, unexplicated 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 principles and behaviours. Values include such things as truth, discipline, fairness, integrity and openness.

It is difficult to help people learn about geoethics. This is partly because it concerns such a wide range of circumstances, from specific instances, such as the effect of mining on child labour, through our personal geoscientific behaviour, to the way in which humans treat the Earth’s natural resources. It is also not easy, particularly in schools and universities, because the concepts are so wide-ranging and young people are still exploring and getting to grips with their personal values, values that underlie their principles and behaviours, especially in regard to the Earth.

Practical geoethical values clarification exercises can help people:
• to compare their values with others and thus to modify their and others’ values;
• to clarify the relationship between geoethical principles and their underlying values; and
• to understand how their values and principles influence their behaviours, in regard to fellow geoscientists and to the Earth’s natural resources.

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

Both experts and novices in geoethics and values/principles are welcome in this Short Course; teachers, researchers and students will benefit. For novices, especially, a little preparation before the course will help.
• If possible, please read:
https://www.lyellcollection.org/doi/10.1144/SP508-2020-191, or
https://presentations.copernicus.org/EGU21/EGU21-604_presentation.pdf
• Think about your own personal and professional values.
• Please bring some blank paper, a pen and an internet-enabled laptop or telephone (with QR code capability).

Please note that materials will allow up to 20 participants, on a first-come basis. Additional people will be invited to do guided observation in silence during the exercise, and then contribute actively during the debriefing and discussion.

Science is increasingly under pressure from political polarisation, misinformation, and declining public trust. These dynamics not only destabilise scientific communication but also challenge the ability of researchers to engage effectively with society and policymakers. To navigate this landscape, scientists and science communicators are developing new “toolkits” – practical methods, frameworks, and strategies – that support resilience, credibility, and impact.

This short course will introduce participants to a set of emerging toolkits designed over the coming year, focusing on how researchers can strengthen the role of science in public discourse and policy. The session will explore key questions: How can scientists better anticipate and counter misinformation? Which communication strategies foster trust across diverse audiences? What can we learn from cross-disciplinary and international experiences in addressing science denial and disinformation campaigns?

Through interactive discussion and real-world examples, participants will gain insight into practical approaches to safeguard the integrity of science while making it more accessible and actionable. The course will also highlight opportunities for early-career scientists to contribute to shaping new narratives and engagement strategies, ensuring that science remains a cornerstone for evidence-based decision-making.

By the end of the session, attendees will walk away with concrete ideas and resources to strengthen their own science communication practices and to contribute to building a more resilient scientific community.

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, science diplomacy 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.

Are you keen to see your research results integrated into decision-making but don’t know where to start? Science for policy can be very rewarding, but some basic considerations for engaging in science-policy can help you get your foot in the door or up your level of impact. A basic introduction that provides some tips for engagement will be followed up with short impulse talks from a panel of experts, highlighting different opportunities for policy engagement and the skills that got them there. It will also include teasers for different existing toolkits (e.g., Sci-4-Pol Competence Framework) and training opportunities (e.g., Science-Policy Pairing Scheme, or IEEP-EGU mentorship scheme) to boost your science for policy engagement skills. The session will end with an open Q&A with the panel.

Join us for a lunchtime session bringing together representatives from four key Austrian public institutions — the Austrian Parliament, the Federal Computing Centre, the Federal Ministry of Innovation, Mobility and Infrastructure, and the City of Vienna.

Each speaker will offer a brief insight into how their organisation engages with and applies scientific knowledge in their day-to-day work, and what kinds of research collaborations or expertise they are looking for. This is a great opportunity for researchers to learn about non-academic career pathways and partnership opportunities, and to make direct contact with practitioners at the intersection of science and public policy.

Speakers:

Dr. Christoph Clar, Policy Officer, Research and Support in Parliamentary Matters, Parliament Austria

Gerhard Embacher-Köhle, Senior Management Consultant, Austrian Federal Computing Centre (BRZ)

Dr. Katharina Meissner-Schöller, Head of the Department for Science, Research and Business City Vienna

Florian Schwendinger, Policy Officer, Federal Ministry of Innovation, Mobility and Infrastructure (BMIMI)

The session aims to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange between educators, academic institutions, and science communicators to enhance school-level Earth Science education. Earth Science is a compulsory topic in many European school curricula and a critical subject for understanding global challenges, but often lacks prominence in educational 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.

A two-and-a-half-day teacher enhancement workshop proposed by the EGU Education Committee. GIFT 2026 will offer lectures from top-level scientists, practical activities and a poster session to 80 selected teachers of secondary (and primary) schools from Europe and beyond. The topic for 2026 will be "Natural Hazards, Human Impact and Earth's Resources: Shaping Life and Earth".

The EGU Education Committee is organising the Geosciences Information for Teachers (GIFT) workshop, which will include 6 practical sessions. The 2026 GIFT topic will be 'Natural Hazards, Human Impact and Earth's Resources: Shaping Life and Earth'.

The EGU Education Committee is organising the Geosciences Information for Teachers (GIFT) workshop, which will include a poster session on "Projects of Natural Hazards, Human Impact and Earth's Resources at School". Abstract submission is open to teachers participating in the GIFT workshop and to all other authors.