Keynote sessions
Union-wide events
Community-led
Inter- and Transdisciplinary Sessions
Disciplinary sessions
SC – Short Courses

Programme Group Chairs: Rolf Hut, Maria Vittoria Gargiulo

SC1 – Being a scientist (being a scientist at EGU, being an ethical scientist, being a scientist as part of a specific group or identity, having a career in science)

Sub-Programme Group Scientific Officers: Rolf Hut, Maria Vittoria Gargiulo

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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!

Convener: Maria Vittoria GargiuloECSECS | Co-conveners: Simon Clark, Ilenia MurgiaECSECS
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Modern research is inherently collaborative. This means working with people across cultures, backgrounds, and borders. While it may be optimistic to assume every student and researcher is equally part of the “scientific community”, the values, practices, and working environments within this community can vary widely between institutions and disciplines. Furthermore, what may be an accepting and supportive community to some, others may find it less welcoming or representative, or even hostile. People who are part of a minority (i.e., LGBTQIA+) are particularly vulnerable to differences in work experiences and representation.
This begs the question of how one can find or build a community in science which upholds accepting and collaborative values. What role does visibility play in finding and building such communities, and how can the scientific community create spaces that foster belonging? We will explore these questions together with the advantages and challenges in fostering awareness of these issues in the workplace, how “othering” relates to the current social climate, and the role of tolerance in building supportive communities. Here, a fine balance must be struck between creating spaces where people feel seen and represented, without splintering into fragmented and siloed communities, and the need for openness, accessibility and tolerance across the wider scientific community.
In this short course, participants will learn about finding and building queer and intersectional communities in Earth sciences. We will discuss these questions (and more) to articulate our challenges and co-create action together with input from the audience. Participants will identify barriers to inclusion, belonging, and representation, and develop practical strategies for addressing them. Finally, we will explore how queer and intersectional communities can create spaces for scientific knowledge and resource sharing among the LGBTQIA+ members of geoscience, while fostering collaboration, representation, and emotional support.

Co-sponsored by EDI
Convener: Claudio Robustelli TestECSECS | Co-conveners: Hannah Sophia DaviesECSECS, Felix S. FauerECSECS, Marek MuchowECSECS, Sujith KrishnakumarECSECS
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Building a successful academic career is challenging. Doing so while also raising a family can push you to your limits. Many early- and mid-career scientists grapple with balancing family life and academic responsibilities. The fear-of-missing-out dualism between family and academia causes an inner conflict and feeling of injustice and inadequateness. Families often find themselves confronted with what feels like a personal problem when, in reality, it is a shared societal issue. Modern families come in diverse forms, including dual-career parents, single parents, same-sex parents, and various shared parenting arrangements. The academic world must recognize and adapt to this reality, aligning with broader themes of inclusion, participation, and diversity. Therefore, we organise this platform to discuss the challenges and share experiences.

Finding support and confidence in moving forward as an individual is important. As a community, we need to openly discuss parenting in academia so that we can demand and develop sustainable solutions that benefit everyone, rather than repeatedly fighting private battles to follow the academic career dream. Parenthood can also shift your priorities, which may lead you to consider leaving academia altogether or to become a better researcher.

This short course provides a platform that allows an honest exchange on diverse experiences and continue the discussion from previous EGU General Assemblies on this topic. It will:
1. Provide insight into how being a parent impacts everyday academic life.
2. Highlight personal experiences made by a panel of current and previous academic parents.
3. Conclude with an open discussion addressing public discourse on equal parenting and work-life balance.
This course is intended for scientists considering starting a family, current academic parents seeking to connect, and faculty staff responsible for supporting parenting employees.

Convener: Katrin Löer | Co-conveners: Bart Root, Rebekka Steffen, Gerald Raab, Johanna Kerch
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Participating in scientific conferences, especially in large events such as the EGU General Assembly (GA), comes with specific challenges for neurodivergent attendees. The term “neurodivergent” describes individuals who think and experience the world in ways that differ from societal norms, including, for example (but not limited to) autistic, ADHD, dyslexic, or dyspraxic individuals. Current estimates indicate that about 15-20% of the global population could be neurodivergent. This amounts to about 3000-4000 individuals among the 20,000 yearly attendees of the EGU GA. Many neurodivergent people have heightened sensory sensitivities, executive function and communication challenges, amongst others, which come along with specific needs when attending a conference. Some have developed their own strategies (consciously or not) to be able to participate and engage in conferences, which often come at the cost of exhaustion, while others forgo participating in some events entirely due to a lack of accommodations and adequate settings. In 2024, the introduction of a lanyard that indicates a hidden disability has been a first step towards creating a safer atmosphere for neurodivergent attendees. The aim of this short course, organised for the first time at EGU25, is to provide a space to share experiences between neurodivergent scientists, identify challenges and ways to cope with them, and discuss ideas and tools to improve their experience during the EGU GA, through short talks from neurodivergent peers, discussions amongst participants, and an opportunity to provide feedback to EGU regarding improvements.
The course is targeted at both first-time attendees and more seasoned participants who identify as neurodivergent, but also to all participants who would like to better support their neurodivergent peers

Convener: Ana Bastos | Co-conveners: Arnaud Beth, Ana Cristina Vásquez, Anita Di Chiara
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This session will provide different perspectives on navigating geoscience careers, as provided by a panel representing a range of career stages and positions, both academic and beyond. Each panellist with talk about their career path, provide advice and insight informed by their experience, and answer audience questions.

The academic career path can sometimes be difficult to follow, with a lack of clarity about what opportunities to exist and uncertainty about in what direction you could take your next step. Stepping beyond academia breaks opens up a new horizon of career choices, and this is often the most common track geoscientist follow: in some fields, up to 70% of PhD graduates will go into work outside of academia. Yet, despite this, these careers can be overlooked when future occupations are discussed within academia.

There are many different careers beyond academia which require or benefit from a research background, but often early career scientists struggle to make the transition due to reduced support and networking, as well as lack of information about non-academic career paths.

In this short course, our panellists will give their advice on building a career. The panel will start by discussing common career questions, such as how to transition between academia and industry, and what are the pros and cons of a career inside and outside of academia. The session will then conclude with panellists answering questions from the audience. This short course is targeted at early career scientists, but is open to anyone considering the next step in their career.

Convener: Simon ClarkECSECS | Co-conveners: Ilenia MurgiaECSECS, Liliana Macotela
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Postdoctoral researchers are essential contributors to scientific advancement. They drive innovation, supervise students, support teaching, and perform academic service. Despite their central role, postdocs remain in a structurally precarious stage of the academic trajectory, often characterised by short-term contracts, geographic mobility, changes of research topic, and uncertain long-term career prospects.

Although postdoctoral researchers are highly trained, having spent years building their set of competencies, the path to academic independence is highly – and increasingly – competitive, and often opaque. Many of these ‘’early-career’’ researchers ultimately leave academia altogether, not by preference, but due to structural barriers that hinder sustainable career development. These challenges, while experienced individually, are systemic in nature and have significant implications for the research community as a whole.

This short course aims to initiate a frank and constructive discussion on the conditions faced by postdoctoral researchers across geosciences. We will present recent data and findings from surveys specifically targeting the postdoctoral community, providing an evidence-based overview of the postdocs' situation. In particular, building on a survey conducted within the space physics community, we will present an in-depth analysis of postdoctoral experiences, including the use of methods such as Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) to identify distinct profiles and patterns emerging from postdocs’ experiences and working situations.

In addition to disseminating empirical data, the session will foster dialogue around re-envisioning the postdoctoral experience. What structural changes are necessary to improve the postdoc phase? What kinds of institutional or community support could help mitigate the existing challenges? How might funding agencies and universities contribute to a healthier and more equitable academic ecosystem?

The course will include scene-setting presentations to initiate an interactive session with questions, comments, and collective discussion. We encourage the participation of not only postdocs but also PhD students and senior researchers interested in improving the sustainability and inclusivity of academic careers.

Convener: Giulia CozzaniECSECS | Co-conveners: Eleanna Asvestari, Konstantinos Horaites, Maxime Grandin, Nicolina ChrysaphiECSECS
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Leave EGU27 more confident in your skills and with a firmer grasp on your career identity! Anyone entering the job market or looking for a new job after academia will confront the phrase ‘transferable skills’. PhD candidates and scientists are advised to highlight their transferable skills when applying for non-academic jobs, looking to change scientific research areas, or take a leap into a new field. Yet, whilst it is important to important to highlight your transferable skills, it it can be difficult to know what skills you have and how relevant they are.
Join this interactive short course to help identify your skills, learn what different type of skills there are, how they can be used to inform your career identity. There are many transferable skills you might have from your research career: big data analysis, communicating your findings, supervising, teaching, project management and budgeting, for example. But there are many more! Throughout his short course, facilitators with experience navigating academic and non-academic careers will help guide you in laying a firmer path for your career journey, as you better understand your set of skills and the careers where these will be necessary.

Convener: Megan O'DonnellECSECS | Co-convener: Simon ClarkECSECS
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Navigating research and career trajectories can be challenging for Early-Career Scientists (ECS) at any stage, from MSc or PhD completion to the search for a postdoctoral position and transitions into new professional paths. Nowadays, a growing number of ECS are interested in Earth and Space Sciences, spanning Earth observation, exploration missions studying planetary bodies and atmospheres, sensor development, research into the evolution of life and habitability across the Solar System.

This panel discussion introduces ECS to the diverse career pathways, job opportunities and research projects of space agencies and research institutes. This course aims to introduce ECS to Earth, planetary and space sciences with the support of scientists and professionals with expertise in the field. Representatives from space agencies and leading institutes will provide key tips to the ECS interested in pursuing a career in this branch.

The panel, comprising early-career, mid-career, and established researchers, will present their career journeys and professional development, offering insightful advice on how to enter and navigate Earth, planetary and space exploration activities. Participants will have the opportunity to interact directly with researchers and professionals at different career stages. That way, participants may have a clear understanding of:
● Current Research Programs. An overview of ongoing Earth observation projects and initiatives, as well as planetary and space exploration missions.
● Innovations. Insights into the technological challenges and opportunities facing the Earth, planetary and space science communities, including innovative instrumentation and devices for remote sensing or ground-based measurements.
● Career Pathways. Advice on applying for internships and postdoctoral research positions, highlight future career opportunities at space agencies, and recommend workshops that can support the professional development of the participants.
● Professional Networking: Strategies for building collaborations and engaging with international Earth, planetary and space science communities.

Convener: Salvatore BuoninfanteECSECS | Co-conveners: Aurelie Van den NeuckerECSECS, Andreas WagnerECSECS, Andrea BaroneECSECS, Michela RavanelliECSECS
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The job market in both industry and academia can be a very challenging environment, especially for those either just completing a course of study, or looking to change sectors. Trying to get your application to stand out is a task that comes with a lot of unknowns, even after years of experience in higher or further education. Preparing for a higher level job application or interview is a useful skill that develops as you advance in your career – with new aspects being added with each new position you aim for. Once you get invited to interview, this process in itself bring a whole new set of challenges that range from: online vs in-person interviews; interview protocol; using and managing AI tools; accommodations and reasonable requests; expected time-frames; anticipating questions; gauging employer culture and more.

This short course aims to bridge this gap to employment by drawing on the experience of senior career workers in both industry and academia, as well as HR professionals, to provide specific advice for anyone who is in the process of submitting a job application or preparing for interview. This short course will address questions such as: what to include or not in a cover letter and job application; what are the different kinds of CV and when you should use them; how to prepare for an online or in-person interview; what are some of the signs you can look for to identify workplace culture; and what questions you should ask in an interview.

As a practical exercise, this short course will conclude with a mock interview; a list of questions that could be asked of applicants in a limited time environment, with feedback available from the presenters. Short course participants will leave feeling more prepared and confident in their skills for navigating the job market.

Convener: Hazel Gibson | Co-conveners: Simon ClarkECSECS, Lion Huijers, Amer Batshone
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This Short Course introduces mindfulness and meditation practices, combining theoretical notions with practical exercises that can be integrated into daily life. Practicing meditation can help relieve stress, anxiety, and rumination by bringing our awareness to the present moment. Mindfulness can be particularly beneficial for Early Career Scientists (ECS) facing the pressures of academic life, such as short contracts, competition, and uncertainty about what comes next, and it offers grounding tools for anyone experiencing sensory overwhelm, including neurodivergent people. The meditation sessions offered in this course also provide a quiet, calming space for the General Assembly attendees amid the intensity and busyness of the conference.
The first part of the course (~ 45 min + 15 min Q&A) will be dedicated to a theoretical lecture given by Prof. Elli Weisbaum. Elli Weisbaum has worked internationally facilitating applied mindfulness workshops and retreats across the sectors of education, healthcare, and business. She is based at the University of Toronto as an Assistant Professor (teaching stream) in the Buddhism, Psychology and Mental Health Program (BPMH), at New College, with a joint appointment to the Department of Psychiatry, in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine. Her work draws upon research from the fields of neuroscience, education, healthcare and the workplace to explore how the scientific evidence base for mindfulness is being integrated and operationalized across key sectors of society. The lecture will cover topics such as the benefits of mindfulness for well-being and neuroplasticity, how to integrate mindfulness into daily life and in working environments, and how meditation can help create more clarity and presence in research work.
The second part (~45 min) will be interactive and dedicated to breathing meditation techniques. It will focus mainly on short meditation practices that can be done during working hours in an office environment, such as sitting meditation, walking meditation, tea/coffee meditation, and body relaxation. Participants will receive instructions on posture, movement, and following the breath, and will be guided through short meditation sessions to experience the practice right away. A 15-min slot will be reserved at the end for Q&A.
No prior familiarity with meditation or mindfulness practices is assumed or required, and participants at any level of experience are welcome.

Convener: Martina NataliECSECS | Co-conveners: Rebekka Steffen, Jean-Baptiste KoehlECSECS
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The European Research Council (ERC) is a leading funding body at European level. It aims to support excellent, frontier research across all fields of science. The ERC offers various outstanding funding opportunities for investigator-driven projects, including grant budgets for individual scientists of up to €3.5 million. ERC calls are open to researchers around the world: all nationalities of applicants are welcome for projects carried out at a host institution in European Union member states or/and associated countries. The ERC is also quickly adapting to the constantly evolving research landscape, therefore at this session, the main features of ERC funding schemes will be presented, highlighting most recent changes implemented in the work programme and their effects in the evaluation. In addition, two invited speakers, an ERC grantee and a former member of the evaluation panel, will provide their own perspectives (as applicant and as evaluator) of the ERC evaluation process.

Convener: David Gallego-Torres | Co-conveners: Claudia Jesus-Rydin, Michel Campillo

SC2 – Doing science (methods and approaches, tools and techniques)

Sub-Programme Group Scientific Officers: Rolf Hut, Maria Vittoria Gargiulo

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Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) data are widely used to understand, past, present, and future of the climate, its variability and change. Apart from climate science, they are used in other adjacent Earth science fields such ecology, hydrology, cryospheric science, etc. But it can be intimidating to find, analyze, and interpret those data, especially for new users. This short course provides an introduction to CMIP data and guides participants through the first steps of working with them. It is intended for the scientists who are starting to work with CMIP data and need practical guidance for data access, experiment selection, and basic analysis.

This course will explain what are the CMIP data and what is the purpose of different CMIP experiments. Participants will learn where and how to find data that would help to address their scientific interests. The course will also demonstrate how CMIP data can be explored and analyzed.

The course materials will be made available after the course. An overview of several tools and tutorials is available through the WCRP CMIP website: https://wcrp-cmip.org/tools/, https://wcrp-cmip.org/tutorials/. This course is initiated by the members of Fresh Eyes on CMIP (https://fresh-eyes.wcrp-cmip.org/), and is intended to become a starting point for separate workshops and hackathons.

Convener: Bettina GierECSECS | Co-conveners: Beth DingleyECSECS, Evgenia GalytskaECSECS, Rashed Uz ZzamanECSECS, Flossie BrownECSECS
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Environmental DNA (eDNA) is increasingly used to detect organisms, recover genetic information, and reconstruct past environments. eDNA can be collected from a wide range of environmental materials, including river water, soil, sediment, and air. eDNA approach can be closely linked to Earth-surface processes, such as river capture, which can influence the dispersal, deposition, preservation, and degradation of genetic materials. This short course will introduce the principles, methods, and applications of eDNA from a geoscience perspective, with a particular focus on riverine eDNA and paleo-eDNA preserved in sedimentary archives.

The course will have three parts. First, we will introduce the complete eDNA workflow, from designing sampling strategies and preventing contamination to laboratory protocols, bioinformatic processing, and the generation of taxonomic data. Second we will demonstrate a riverine eDNA sampling device and conduct a simple field sampling exercise during the course. We will also provide practical guidance for geoscientists who wish to use commercial sampling, laboratory, and sequencing services. Finally, we will explore geological applications of eDNA, including detecting species occurrence, recovering genetic and phylogeographic information, and using these data to infer geological processes. We will also discuss the limitations, uncertainties, and challenges associated with applying eDNA to geoscience questions.

The course is designed for scientists with no prior experience in molecular biology who are interested in exploring the use of eDNA across a broad range of geoscience applications.

Convener: Yaquan Chang | Co-conveners: Carolin KrugECSECS, Romano ClementucciECSECS, Stefan HaselbergerECSECS
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Forecasting systems are indispensable for making informed decisions under uncertainty. Therefore, there is a need for an objective and well-understood framework for ``forecast verification'', i.e., qualitative and quantitative assessment of forecast performance.

Statistical methods compare historical forecasts with corresponding verifications, indicating whether the forecasting system behaved significantly differently (in a statistical sense) from what was expected. This requires that the forecasts have a well--defined statistical interpretation; whether a forecast represents a mean or a quantile makes a difference with regards to how we evaluate that forecast.

This short course will introduce the participants to the fundamentals of statistical forecast verification. Some necessary statistical theory will be presented, along with the concept of risk measures, which allows to provide forecasts with a precise statistical meaning. We furthermore illustrate the relation to scoring and identification functions, and discuss practical challenges with evaluating forecasts as spatial fields (as opposed to point by point). Specifically, the course will cover the following topics (more or less in that order)

(1) Forecast types, risk measures, scoring functions, and identification functions (20min)
(2) Tests and p-values (10min)
(3) How to evaluate forecasts for specific risk measures
(with hands-on part, 30min)
(3) How to evaluate forecasts of spatial fields
(with hands-on part, 30min)
(4) Open challenges (15min)

The target audience is researchers (from both academic institutions and operational centers) who are either new to forecast verification or have practical experience but want to learn more about the theory. The discussed methods are applicable not only in atmospheric forecasts but in many other fields such as parameter estimation, data assimilation, model evaluation, and machine learning.

Co-organized by AS5
Convener: Jochen Broecker | Co-convener: Sebastian BuschowECSECS
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Climate change is a major concern for public health. This was exemplified by the estimation of Vicedo et al. (2021) that 37% of heat-related deaths were attributable to climate change between 1991-2018, when considering data from 43 countries. Two key frontiers in health impact attribution are now to move from trend attribution to event attribution, and from considering heat-related mortality to a broader set of health outcomes, such as cause-specific hospital admissions or the spread of infectious diseases.

This short course will provide an overview of 3 core aspects:
• the caveats associated with moving from a hazard to a health-impact focused perspective within an attribution framework
• discuss examples of health impact assessments from heat-related mortality and infectious diseases from an epidemiological perspective
• demonstrate how to combine epidemiological modelling with attribution

We welcome all those interested in the intersection of climate and health. The content will be targeted towards an audience with experience or interest in (extreme) event attribution of hazards, and/or those with experience in epidemiology or health impacts modelling. The goal of this course is to provide participants with an understanding of some of the key challenges from both the climate and health perspectives, as well as to facilitate future collaborations between those in both the climate and health fields by providing teaching material and interactive tutorials. This short course is delivered as part of the project TACTIC, and gratefully acknowledges funding provided by the Wellcome Trust.

Convener: Emma HolmbergECSECS | Co-conveners: Samuel LüthiECSECS, Ania Kawiecki PeraltaECSECS, Mireia GinestaECSECS, Ana Maria Vicedo Cabrera
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Reported sensor performance is a context-bound claim, not a property of a device, yet headline metrics are routinely reused as decision-ready evidence. This hands-on course gives participants a four-layer method for reading any performance claim: who ran the evaluation, what data product was evaluated, under what conditions, and what the metrics do and do not convey. Working in groups with real anonymised evaluations and use cases, participants produce a one-page evidence map for a claim of their own and leave able to identify what is missing and whether it matters for their application. Here we will use low-cost air pollution sensors as an example, but will be relevant to anyone across disciplines procuring, deploying, or citing evaluations of environmental measurements. This session is organised by the Allin-Wayra activity of the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry project.

Convener: Stefan GillottECSECS | Co-conveners: Michelle Hummel, Federico Dallo, Sebastian Diez, Nicole CowellECSECS
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In this workshop you’ll be using AI and GPUs to run various open weather models, including medium range forecasts, seasonal huge-ensembles, and nowcasting. You will use open-source Python software, Earth2Studio, to quickly set up pipelines that pull initial conditions, configure model runs and generate output in real time. You will learn about the properties of these various models and where they have been used by other developers to create solutions.

This workshop will be framed around an existing self-led course. We will provide access to hosted Jupyter Notebooks, but attendees must bring their own laptops. Attendees can also install the software on their laptop provided they have a compatible GPU. In person experts will provide context and overview, before the workshop progresses through a series of worked examples. Finally, we will provide a self assessment. NVIDIA will publicise the event via their marketing channels to drive further engagement.

Prerequisites:
* Basic familiarity with Python.
* Some familiarity with weather forecasting concepts is beneficial but not required
* Attendees must bring their own laptops. Cloud notebooks will be provided.

Convener: Niall Robinson | Co-conveners: Stefan Weissenberger, Marius Koch, Alberto CarpentieriECSECS, Negin SobhaniECSECS
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This short course introduces recent conceptual and operational advances in multi-hazard and multi-risk research. Researchers across all career stages (including ECSs) with backgrounds in Natural Hazards (NH), Climate (CL), Geodynamics (GD), Nonlinear Processes in Geosciences (NP), Geomorphology (GM), Hydrological Sciences (HS), and Geoscience & Society (GS) are welcome to join us to develop their knowledge and skills in untangling multi-hazard disasters and their intriguing dynamics.
Learning from the past to protect the future lies at the heart of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), starting with a proper understanding of what makes a (multi-)hazard event escalate to a disaster. When dealing with consecutive, compounding, or complex hazards, understanding the dynamics of hazards, impacts, exposure, and vulnerability, and the ways mitigation fits into this interplay is key. Recent years have provided substantial advances on precisely these dynamics, and a growing set of EGU sessions has been carrying them to the wider research community and to stakeholders.
Through a mix of short talks, exercises, and open discussion, we will distil these advances into accessible entry points and learning objectives addressing:
Multi-hazard interaction mechanisms;
Multi-hazard impacts and recovery dynamics;
Vulnerability dynamics;
Multi-risk assessment;
From these, we set out a short research agenda focusing on the gaps open in multi-hazard and multi-risk research. The course ends with an open discussion on this agenda, where participants can identify questions to take forward as new PhD and general research topics. We will also provide an interactive, curated reading list on the covered topics.
For the convening team, this course is our way of giving back to the EGU community that supported us: sharing both the science and the lessons learned working in DRR.

Convener: Cosmina AlbulescuECSECS | Co-conveners: Marleen de RuiterECSECS, Robert Sakic TrogrlicECSECS, Silvia De Angeli, Judith ClaassenECSECS
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Based on the motto: “No lab, no power, no money? No problem!”, this short course provides a practical, hands-on introduction (skills and tools) to build and further develop low-cost, open-source sensors for field ecophysiology. Construction (from assembling to programming) of existing and published systems (all system designs, wiring schemes, code, and bills of materials are freely available under CC-BY 4.0) to monitor (1) environmental variables (e.g., PAR, temperature, humidity), (2) plant responses (e.g., NDVI, PRI), and (3) biogeochemical cycling (e.g., CO₂ and ET fluxes) will be explained and shown through the introduction of an open-access, living-document manual ("Build-It-Yourself: Low-Cost Systems for Field Ecophysiology"; DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19628527) and a portable, solar-powered maker-space containing all needed to do so.
To amplify this, the course is focused around demonstration and active engagement (banquet style), based on a simple example, handheld NDVI Sensor. Participants will learn, using the portable maker space - equipped with tools, components, and transferable calibration standards - how sensors are assembled using off the shelf available components, follow on-side and video instructions, wiring schemes, upload code, and calibrate devices for field deployment. This will act as a practical example of how researchers can build and maintain their own monitoring systems in resource-limited settings. Co-conveners from West (e.g., Ghana, Benin) and East Africa (e.g., Uganda, Rwanda) will share real-world experiences from field deployments of shown systems across West and East Africa.
The course is designed for early-career researchers, technicians, and practitioners who want to reduce dependency on expensive commercial equipment and build their own monitoring tools. No prior electronics experience is required. The main goal is to democratize science and empower participants to build, adapt and newly develop sensors for their own research.

Convener: Mathias Hoffmann | Co-conveners: Therese Ave MariaECSECS, Leonce Geoffroy SossaECSECS, Asadhu SsebyotoECSECS, Michael AsanteECSECS
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In 2027, machines are supporting us in the coding process. Still, they remain helpers, not a replacement for ourselves, and it is our responsibility to ensure that the code we deliver and use as a basis for our research is clean, maintainable, and bug-free.
It is often said that code is read more often than it is written, and in the era of generative AI we spend more time than ever reading and reviewing. When doing so we must strive to follow best practices and ensure that we produce clean code to improve maintainability and reusability. Regardless of the author, the principles behind clean, maintainable, reusable code remain the same, and we need to understand them in order to ensure the code we produce is correct and easy to understand -- for us now, in the future, and for our colleagues.

Many researchers want to deliver better software, but aren't sure what is important and what tools and skills they need to learn. This short course introduces essential software engineering practices that are crucial for both AI-supported and individual development and discusses practical aspects of writing clean code while interacting with AI.

The topics covered:
- Code structure (naming, dividing code into smaller units)
- Environments and dependency management
- Code style, standards and IDE integration
- Unit testing
- Code documentation essentials
- The code-review process
- AI agent interaction (spec-driven development, agent instructions, AI work optimisation, sensible agent tasks)

The short course will combine lecture and discussion, giving participants the opportunity to share their own challenges and experiences, exchanging insights with fellow researchers.

The short course will be led by senior software engineering and research professionals with experience in a variety of commercial R&D and science projects. We welcome engaged participants of all backgrounds and levels of experience who want to improve their software skills in research and discuss with others how to apply them in their work.

Convener: Karolina Stanisławska | Co-convener: Jack AtkinsonECSECS
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Workflows naturally arise in computational applications. In Earth sciences they are used to automate data downloads, all sorts of forecasts, and climate research, among many others. However, their employment in the research of non-computational scientists is limited.
This short course aims to introduce workflows to an audience with minimal computational knowledge. We will see how workflows are currently used in Earth sciences, what workflow managers are, and how they can improve productivity.
Then, we will have a demonstration by four major workflow managers used in Earth sciences:

- ecFlow (Marcos Bento, ECMWF)

ecFlow is a workflow manager developed at ECMWF that enables users to run a large number of programs (with dependencies on each other and on time) in a controlled environment. It provides tolerance for hardware and software failures, combined with restart capabilities.
ecFlow is used at ECMWF to run all of their operational suites across a range of platforms.

- Cylc (Oliver Sanders, UK Met Office)

Cylc (pronounced silk) is a general purpose workflow engine that also manages cycling systems very efficiently. It is used in production weather, climate, and environmental forecasting on HPC, but is not specialized to those domains. It is developed by the Earth Sciences New Zealand (formerly NIWA) institute.
Cylc is used to run the operational forecast of the UK Met Office, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, and the Earth Sciences New Zealand institute.

- Sirocco (Matthieu Leclair, ETHZ)

Sirocco is a climate and weather workflow tool written in Python. It brings together characteristics of the AiiDA library by handling data as explicit graph nodes alongside tasks and by defining task plugins and characteristics of Cylc with date cycling. Sirocco was developed between ETHZ and the Paul Scherrer institute (PSI) where the ICON model plays a central role, so that, even though it’s not designed for it specifically, Sirocco ships with a user-friendly ICON plugin.

- Autosubmit (Bruno de Paula Kinoshita, Barcelona Supercomputing Center)

Autosubmit is a lightweight, self‑contained workflow manager tailored for climate research that combines an experiment manager, workflow orchestration, and monitoring in one application. It supports running jobs locally and remotely while tolerating networking and I/O errors. It also provides a GUI for external monitoring.
Autosubmit is currently used to run the workflow of the Destination Earth project.

Convener: Manuel Giménez de Castro MarcianiECSECS | Co-conveners: Bruno De Paula KinoshitaECSECS, Marcos Bento, Matthieu Leclair, Oliver Sanders
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Open science is a collaborative culture enabled by technology that empowers the open sharing of data, information, and knowledge within the scientific community and the wider public to accelerate scientific research and understanding. The proposed workshop will provide learners with an introduction to the principles, practices, and tools necessary to conduct open science, equipping them to confidently initiate and participate in open science projects. The session will cover key topics such as open data, open peer review, and collaborative research practices.
Topics covered include:
Why Open Science? – This lesson establishes what “open science” means and explores how open practices benefit both individual researchers and the broader scientific community by increasing visibility, impact, and reproducibility while reducing errors.
Concerns and Considerations – This lesson addresses common fears and challenges associated with adopting open science, including social and institutional barriers, concerns about being "scooped," and the legal and ethical considerations for handling sensitive data.
Planning for Open Science – This lesson provides a framework for conducting open science. It covers the open science workflow, the FAIR Principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable), the creation of an Open Science and Data Management Plan (OSDMP), and the definition of roles and responsibilities within a project.
Components of Open Science – This lesson introduces the fundamental elements of open research. It provides an overview of open data, open-source software, and open results, explaining how to approach sharing each of these core research products.
Tools for Open Science – This lesson introduces the practical tools that support open science. Topics include persistent identifiers (such as DOIs and ORCID iDs), open licensing, using repositories for data and code, version control, study pre-registration, and the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the open science landscape.
Group Discussion and Q&A Session – The workshop will conclude with a dedicated period for whole-group or small-group discussions regarding current open science topics and past challenges participants have encountered. Attendees will also have the opportunity to engage with and ask questions of NASA’s open science champions.
Those who successfully complete the workshop will receive a digital badge and certificate from NASA.

Convener: Kaylin Bugbee | Co-conveners: Peter Löwe, Fred Kepner
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We commonly ask computers to do heavy lifting for us in terms of calculations and running code. Still, large projects can take a long time to run, compete with resources needed for other tasks, and even exceed our hardware capabilities. As such, it’s often helpful to outsource tasks to remote clusters and cloud computers to get work done. Because graphical user interface (GUI) options are not always available, it’s imperative we know our way around the command line.

In this short course, participants will have the opportunity to build a simple bash script and practice running it on a cluster platform. No prior knowledge of the command line, shell, or cluster computing is required: this course is open to everyone! Just bring your laptop and join us! Those in attendance will learn and practice:

* locating and identifying a local terminal emulator
* navigating and managing local file systems using the command line
* locating “hidden” or “dot” files to modify system settings
* creating aliases for repetitive tasks
* connecting to a remote server using Secure Shell (SSH)
* creating and saving a BASH script
* scheduling tasks to run remotely using a workload manager

Additional side quests (time and resources permitting) may include:

* test drive an alternative desktop environment
* personalize the local environment/workspace
* use skills to run practical examples (grow ice crystals, simulate a tsunami, calculate river discharge, BYO code)

We envision a team-oriented “hackathon” style activity, where groups organized around scientific discipline and/or preferred desktop environment get to know their local terminal emulators, connect to a remote server, and schedule some code relevant to their work to run on shared resources.

Convener: Jacob MellyECSECS | Co-conveners: Elaine Tan Hui ZhiECSECS, Enrico BiscaroECSECS, Rahul KumarECSECS
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Monitoring the terrestrial water cycle—including soil moisture, surface water, floods, drought, groundwater depletion, and hydrologically driven land deformation—requires observations across multiple spatial and temporal scales that no single satellite technique can fully capture. This short course addresses this challenge by bringing together four spaceborne approaches—GNSS-R, GRACE/GRACE-FO, InSAR/SAR, and P-band Signals of Opportunity (SoOp)—that offer complementary perspectives on hydrological processes, leveraging each technique's distinct physical sensitivities, sensing depths, and spatio-temporal trade-offs.

Rather than presenting these as four separate topics, the course emphasizes their synergy: how GNSS-R's frequent, sub-daily surface soil moisture retrievals complement SAR's finer spatial resolution and SoOp's sensitivity to root-zone moisture; how InSAR's high-resolution deformation measurements relate to GRACE/GRACE-FO's large-scale water-storage signals; and how SAR/InSAR observations can provide additional information on snow and glacier dynamics in cryospheric headwater regions.

Through short technique-focused talks, hands-on browser-based demonstrations of open data portals and processing tools, and a closing discussion, participants will see how combining these observations can offer a more comprehensive understanding of hydrological and cryospheric processes than any single technique alone.

The course is relevant to Geodesy (G), Hydrological Sciences (HS), Earth and Space Science Informatics (ESSI), and Natural Hazards (NH), with connections to Cryospheric Sciences (CR). It is designed to foster cross-disciplinary dialogue and collaboration between geodesists, remote sensing scientists, hydrologists, cryospheric scientists, and data scientists.

Convener: Mina RahmaniECSECS | Co-conveners: Dnyaneshwar GawaiECSECS, Chethan V AECSECS
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Modern Earth and planetary sciences largely rely on sophisticated analytical techniques to characterise geological materials and to unravel processes recorded therein. As these techniques continue to be expanded and refined, researchers have access to an ever-growing range of methods capable of resolving, for example, mineral compositions, micro textures and ages at increasingly high resolution. However, even the most advanced analytical technique will not provide useful data if it is not carefully selected based on its abilities vs limitations in answering our specific scientific questions. For early career researchers, additional challenges are posed by limited time and financial resources, which can be effectively overcome by expanding one’s scientific network in a proactive way. At this stage, particularly while drafting grant proposals, learning to prioritize analytical work, and how to allocate resources and approach laboratories is essential.
This short course is designed as a practical introduction/guide to the analytical workflow, following the progression from the evaluation of different analytical techniques in the context of one’s research, to securing lab access and, ultimately, to data acquisition, evaluation, curation and publication. In addition to presenting an overview of broader analytical techniques (e.g., mass spectrometry, spectroscopy, electron beam techniques, etc.) that are commonly employed in the geosciences, this course will introduce fundamental considerations on preparing for analytical sessions and understanding laboratory culture, including how to communicate effectively with laboratory scientists and staff regarding good practices and expectations.

Convener: Veronica PeverelliECSECS | Co-conveners: Fernanda Torres-MancinelliECSECS, Catherine TapallaECSECS, Agata PoganjECSECS, Luiz F. G. Morales
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Most multivariate statistics and machine learning algorithms assume Euclidean metrics in unconstrained data spaces. On the other hand, most real-world data are strictly positive and capped by physical or constant-sum constraints.
Disregarding mandatory assumptions when applying statistical models may obscure meaningful patterns, produce spurious correlations, or lead to senseless measures of model quality. In this short course, useful recipes for overcoming common pitfalls in multivariate statistics and machine learning will be presented with hands-on examples.

The course is structured into three topics:
a) Why are common metrics meaningless in constrained data spaces?
b) How to deal with physically constrained data?
c) How to deal with constant sum constraints?

This course is conducted interactively, with interdisciplinary, hands-on exercises. Advanced statistical/mathematical knowledge is not required, but bringing your own laptop with an R, Python, or MATLAB environment will help you follow the recipes and exercises presented. We are looking forward to fruitful discussions and the exchange of individual challenges and experiences.

Convener: Annette Rudolph | Co-conveners: Kai Hartmann, Johanna BooseECSECS
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Long-term hydroclimatic datasets are fundamental for understanding climate variability and associated risks. Conventional hydrologic design often assumes stationarity, but climate change, land-use changes, and human interventions continually alter the statistical characteristics of hydroclimatic extremes. Assessing stationarity is therefore essential before estimating hazards and risks. Because standard trend and change-point tests may not capture all statistical shifts, this short course introduces conventional approaches alongside the non-overlapping block stratified random sampling (NBRS) framework for a comprehensive stationarity assessment using complementary non-parametric tests. The course extends this analysis from individual extremes to compound events, where multiple hazards interact simultaneously, sequentially, or across locations. Participants will explore preconditioned, multivariate, temporally compounding, and spatially compounding events, including examples like pluvial-fluvial floods and hot-dry extremes. Topics cover statistical and data-driven approaches such as trend analysis, classification, multivariate statistics, copulas, joint and conditional probabilities, return periods, and risk assessment. Practical demonstrations using open-access datasets and reproducible code will illustrate how to assess stationarity, identify compound events, and quantify joint risks under a changing climate. The course will also address key challenges like threshold selection, uncertainty, non-stationary dependence, and distinguishing statistical association from physical causation, providing an integrated perspective on evolving hydroclimatic risks.

Convener: Achala SinghECSECS | Co-conveners: Priyank Sharma, Ramesh S. V. Teegavarapu
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The EPOS Platform (https://www.epos-eu.org/dataportal) provides access to multidisciplinary data, data products, services and software from solid Earth science domain. Currently, ten thematic communities provide input to the federated system through services (APIs): Anthropogenic Hazards, Geological Information and Modelling, Geomagnetic Observations, GNSS Data and Products, Multi-Scale Laboratories, Near Fault Observatories, Satellite Data, Seismology, Tsunami and Volcano Observations.
The EPOS Platform enables search and discovery of assets thanks to metadata and visualisation in map, table or graph views, including download of the assets, with the objective to enable multi-, inter- transdisciplinary research by following FAIR principles.
This short course will introduce the EPOS ecosystem and demonstrate integrated virtual research environment where users can stage their data and run Jupyter Notebooks, either from existing examples or their own. We see this interactive coding and development environment as a gate towards faster scientific progress and enabling open science.
It is expected that participants have scientific background in one or more scientific domains listed above. The training especially targets young researchers and all those who need to combine multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary data in their research. The use of the EPOS Platform will simplify data search for Early Career Scientists and potentially help them in accelerating their career development. Feedback from participants will be collected and used for further improvements of the EPOS system.

Convener: Jan Michalek | Co-convener: Federica Tanlongo
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Why this short course
Earth and environmental sciences thrive on data diversity: from ocean temperatures to biodiversity records, from climate indicators to ecological observations and their interactions in ecosystems or relation to geophysical circumstances. Yet, this very diversity can also be a barrier: different datasets are described with different standards and stored in different formats.

Research Infrastructures (RI's) provide seamless access to environmental datasets, like the Environmental Research Infrastructure Community (ENVRI) that has developed the ENVRI-Hub. On top of that, RI's offer Vvirtual Rresearch Eenvironments as a service where scientists can integrateturn their own code into workflows and execute these workflows with this data in the cloud .

This short course will give researchers a practical introduction to how workflow builders like NaaVRE, as developed by LifeWatch ERIC, can directly support their own projects to reduce knowledge loss and build more reproducible and impactful science.

What researchers will learn
The interactive outline will engage participants by offering them an opportunity to:
Navigate the ENVRI-Hub and LifeWatch services and datasets: knowing what’s available and what fits their needs;
Understand how to integrate analytical tools into their research workflows: from data discovery and annotation to analysis and sharing;
Present research use cases by reflecting on common challenges and benefits across domains
Explore datasets through different pathways, including LLM-based search;
Draft a mini workflow using curated Jupyter notebooks to map and query essential variables and visualise results;
Share ideas with peers on how workflows could advance their own research projects.

Interactive format
The course will provide demonstration of principles and methodology, and offer live excersises to experiment with finding data and processing it in a cloud environment.

Who should join
This short course is tailored for:
Researchers in Earth and environmental sciences, project coordinators, and data scientists looking to improve their skills in developing data workflows;
Individuals interested in applying interoperable approaches to interdisciplinary research;
Individuals with basic familiarity with Python/Jupyter

Convener: Jacco Konijn | Co-conveners: Zhiming Zhao, Eleonora Parisi, Koen Greuell, Cosimo Vallo
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Analysis-ready data cubes make it easier to explore, share, and reuse large volumes of Earth Observation data. But there are challenges with data cubes: How to make your data cubes reproducible and discoverable? How to scale up processing for multi-TB data cubes? How to know which parts of the cubes were written or not? Firecube is an open-source Python framework built at EUMETSAT to address these challenges of creating and maintaining large data cubes.

This session introduces Firecube and gives participants a hands-on tutorial on building zarr data cubes from Earth Observation data in two parts. The tutorial will be guided by the Firecube developers and will include interactive parts where participants are invited to solve some challenges together.

The first part of the session introduces the Firecube plugin framework. Firecube plugins are the recipe that makes a cube reproducible for anyone and are the heart of the software that knows about your dataset. As Firecube plugins are flexible by design, Firecube can be used by any domain across Earth Sciences and beyond. For the short course, we will take an example dataset from the satellite-based Earth Observation domain to create a plugin for a netCDF dataset, introducing functions such as reprojection, subsetting, and regridding.

The second part of the tutorial puts the created plugin into practice. Using a satellite dataset, we will explore Firecube's capabilities to parallelize the reading and writing of files, manage written chunks with Firecube's chunk manager, and create a catalogue to make the cube discoverable.

The session will be hands-on, with opportunities for participants to discuss how Firecube could be applied to their own datasets and workflows. Basic familiarity with Python, xarray, and zarr is recommended. Participants will also have the opportunity to provide feedback on Firecube and contribute ideas for its future development.

Convener: Anna-Lena ErdmannECSECS | Co-convener: Armagan Karatosun
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This short course is aimed at environmental scientists who write research code and run data analyses and want to use large language models (LLMs) effectively and safely. Used well, LLMs do more than speed up coding: they make it cheap to explore alternative methods, test ideas quickly, understand unfamiliar codebases and improve documentation and testing. Used carelessly, they introduce errors that are hard to spot. This course covers both sides.

We start with a practical introduction to how LLMs work and what that implies for their strengths and failure modes. We then cover the shift from chat-style assistance to agentic coding, where models read a whole repository, run code, inspect outputs and iterate on their own results. This makes them far more capable, but also makes verification and human oversight harder and more important. We then compare commercial models with open-weight models that can run locally and offline, covering capability, cost, privacy and hardware requirements, including deployment on institutional HPC systems and work on data that cannot leave the institution.

The core of the course is built on real examples from climate and hydrology software development and data analysis: cases where LLMs accelerated work and improved its quality, and cases where they produced plausible but wrong code, silently changed scientific logic, or invented functions and references. From these we derive concrete practices: how to constrain and prompt models for scientific code, how to use them for exploration without losing control of the analysis. We then cover how to give agents the right context, by connecting them to project documentation, data catalogues and domain conventions rather than relying on general knowledge, how to verify outputs through testing and review, how to share project context with collaborators so that LLM assistance is consistent across a team, and how to keep results reproducible. We also discuss data privacy, licensing of generated code, and transparent reporting of LLM use in publications.

No prior LLM experience is required; basic programming experience (e.g. Python) is assumed.

Convener: Christian Pagé | Co-conveners: Athanasios TsilimigkrasECSECS, Milica TosicECSECS
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On our ways to scientific discoveries, we (often, sometimes) pick up a pen to sketch out for others and ourselves what we mean. The first sketch is rough, the next is too detailed, and after many more we might be able to draw the essence of our discovery. This can be an expected physical relationship, a structure or pattern, or a concept or analogy. Regardless of the final result, it is essential to start – drawing.

In this short course, we provide you with some (easy to integrate) pointers and practices to get you drawing. So bring pen and paper!

With this short course we want to take you on a journey where drawing is not about pretty illustrations but part of your path of scientific inquiry. This is an anti-disciplinary short course that might change how you learn, teach and communicate your science.

Convener: Anne VoigtländerECSECS | Co-conveners: Sina LorianiECSECS, Larissa van der LaanECSECS, Sarah Airriess
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This short course introduces participants to the Analysis-Ready Cloud-Optimised (ARCO) Zarr datasets available through the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) datastores; the Climate Data Store (CDS) and Atmosphere Data Store (ADS), both operated by ECMWF.
An increasing range of the C3S and CAMS datasets are being made available in ARCO-Zarr format, including the ERA5 family of reanalyses products, SEAS5 seasonal forecasts, AgERA5 and a collection of satellite Essential Climate Variable (ECV) datasets. ARCO-Zarr enables users to access and process only the data they need, often avoiding the need to download large datasets in advance and making many analyses substantially more efficient.
The course will demonstrate how to discover and explore available datasets, access them programmatically using Datastore credentials, and build Python workflows that stream data directly from the cloud to analysis and visualisation tools. Participants will work through hands-on Jupyter Notebooks using real Copernicus datasets and learn practical approaches for efficient data access, processing and visualisation.
The course is aimed at PhD students, researchers and technical users working in Earth-system, climate and environmental sciences. Participants should have basic familiarity with Python; no prior knowledge of Zarr or cloud-based data access is required.

Convener: Edward Comyn-Platt | Co-conveners: Milana Vuckovic, Elena Di Medio, Rory Scarrott
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The effects of climate change on river flow will differ across the world. Using the eWaterCycle platform, we have analysed projected changes in river discharge for XX regions worldwide. To make this global analysis possible, we applied the same simple hydrological model in every region. But how much do the conclusions depend on the choice of model?
In this hands-on Short Course, we invite you to select a region from our interactive map (https://www.ewatercycle.org/CCI-analysis-seamless/caravan_catchments_KG_map_world.html) and test the robustness of the existing analysis by repeating it with a different hydrological model or parameterset. You will compare simulations under historical and future climate scenarios and examine projected changes in high and low river flows.
Along the way, you will learn to work with eWaterCycle: an open-source online environment for FAIR by Design, open and reproducible hydrological modelling. It allows you to work with multiple hydrological models and climate data directly from a browser, without installing the models or downloading the datasets yourself.
During this Short Course, you will learn to:
- Run different hydrological models in eWaterCycle directly from a browser.
- Force hydrological models with historical and future climate data.
- Examine how the choice of hydrological model affects projected changes in high and low river flows.
- Create a FAIR by Design, open and reproducible workflow that can be rerun, shared and extended after the course.
By the end of the session, you will have produced a reproducible climate-change impact analysis for a region of your choice.
This course is intended for Earth scientists interested in regional climate-change impacts, including but not limited to hydrologists. Basic familiarity with Python or Jupyter notebooks is helpful, but no previous experience with eWaterCycle is required.
Bring a laptop, but no need to install anything: everything will be online!

Convener: Rolf Hut | Co-conveners: Bart SchilperoortECSECS, Caitlyn Hall
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This intensive hands-on short course is designed for graduate students, early-career researchers, and professionals interested in distributed hydrological modelling.
Participants will learn how to operate mHMv6 from the command line using the provided test domain.
The course introduces the structure of an mHMv6 setup and its configuration, and demonstrates key principles of mHM through practical examples.
Participants will modify the configuration, rerun the model, and use the resulting output to explore how changes to the setup affect the simulation.

Convener: Sebastian MüllerECSECS | Co-conveners: Friedrich BoeingECSECS, Pallav Kumar ShresthaECSECS, Mehmet Cüneyd Demirel
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ECMWF makes a substantial part of its real-time forecast production freely available as open data under a CC-BY-4.0 licence, with no account, licence agreement or payment required. This includes the operational medium-range IFS ensemble forecast, as well as the AIFS data-driven forecasts, covering the whole globe and updated several times a day. The data are distributed in GRIB and BUFR format, which can be unfamiliar to newcomers. The aim of this course is to remove that barrier and get participants from "I have heard ECMWF data is open" to "I have a forecast field on my screen" within the session.

The first half of the course deals with discovery and access. We start in the browser on data.ecmwf.int, looking at what is actually published: which streams, resolutions, parameters and lead times exist, how the directory structure and file naming work, and how to read the index files that let you fetch only the fields you need rather than whole files. We then move to programmatic access with the ecmwf-opendata Python client, building requests step by step: selecting stream, type, date and time, restricting to specific parameters and levels, and handling the practical issues that might arise. Participants will run these retrievals themselves during the session.

The second half is about doing something with the data. Using earthkit and ecCodes software, we will open, explore, process and visualise the data. From there we work through a set of typical tasks: subsetting a region, extracting a time series at a point, computing simple ensemble statistics such as the mean and spread, and producing maps with the earthkit-plots library.

The course is fully hands-on and runs from Jupyter notebooks that participants can take away and adapt, all materials will be publicly available. Basic familiarity with Python is assumed, but no prior experience with GRIB or BUFR data or ECMWF services is needed. It is open to anyone curious about weather data: no background in meteorology or forecasting is needed. Participants should bring a laptop with them if they want to follow the practicals.

Convener: Alba Gomez SeguraECSECS | Co-conveners: Milana Vuckovic, Valters ZeizisECSECS, M. Crepulja
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Compounding hazards can lead to interconnected or aggravated impacts. In recent years, the analysis of compound events has become essential to understand and to improve our response to such high-impact multi-hazard disasters.

In the context of weather, climate or hydrology, compound events refer to combinations of multiple drivers or hazards which can lead to large impacts and disasters. The compounding events can be independent of each other (i.e., the outcome of one event has no effect on the probability of the other), or they can be dependent (i.e., the outcome of one event affects the probability of another). While compound weather, climate or hydrological events can be related to extreme conditions themselves (e.g. storms, heatwaves, floods and droughts), they can also result from combinations of events that are themselves not extreme but lead to an extreme event or significant impact when combined.

In this Short Course, we will introduce compound events, their types (preconditioned, multivariate, temporally compounding, and spatially compounding events), and the methods used to detect and characterize them. We will highlight the advantages and limitations of different methods to study compound events in large datasets, which can help to identify non-trivial spatio-temporal patterns of extreme events.

This Short Course will focus on sharing experience from a wide range of applications across different scales, state-of-the-art methodological approaches, open access code and datasets, and will allow participants to discuss their own challenges in detecting, characterizing and assessing the risk of compound events in diverse contexts (climate, atmospheric, hydrologic, ocean and natural hazards sciences).

Convener: Joren JanzingECSECS | Co-conveners: Guilherme Mendoza GuimarãesECSECS, Leonore Boelee, Ilias Pechlivanidis
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Organised by the PAGES PaleoIMAGING Working Group, this short course introduces standardised, reproducible workflows for non-destructive imaging in paleosciences. Learn best practices for 3D micro-CT, XRF core scanning, and hyperspectral imaging, with a focus on calibration, SOPs, interlaboratory quality control, and open data sharing across analytical facilities.

Convener: Petra ZahajskáECSECS | Co-conveners: Andrei Kurbatov, Andre Luiz Belem, Hanyu XuECSECS
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Geodetic Theory provides a rigorous mathematical framework for parameter estimation and statistical testing, e.g., such as Gauss-Markov models, Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE), and Detection-Identification-Adaptation (DIA). Meanwhile, the increasing availability of data from terrestrial and space-geodetic techniques (e.g., GNSS, InSAR, VLBI, SLR, altimetry and gravimetry) has accelerated the adoption of Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL), creating new opportunities to integrate model-based and data-driven approaches.

In this short course, we bridge Geodetic Theory and Machine Learning by exploring their mathematical foundations, thus highlighting relationships and complementary capabilities. We first introduce established geodetic estimation and statistical testing methods, defining their connections with statistical learning and modern ML techniques. Through representative geodetic examples, we illustrate the connections between model-based and data-driven paradigms, discussing their underlying assumptions, along with main advantages and limitations.

Particular attention will be given to the challenges of adopting ML as a black-box solution, including uncertainty quantification, statistical reliability, and model validation. Finally, we emphasize the importance of 'explainability' and 'reproducibility' in scientific ML applications.

The course targets geodesists and Earth-science researchers interested in understanding, applying or evaluating ML methods in their research.

Prerequisites: basic linear algebra; no prior ML/DL knowledge is required.

Convener: Lotfi MassarwehECSECS | Co-conveners: Benedikt Soja, Michela RavanelliECSECS

SC3 – Communicating science (communicating with other scientists, communicating with policy, communicating with non-scientists, teaching science)

Sub-Programme Group Scientific Officers: Rolf Hut, Maria Vittoria Gargiulo

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Across the Geosciences and related fields, the manipulation of geospatial data and preparation of related maps are essential tasks. PyGMT (https://www.pygmt.org) is a Python interface to the widely used Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) library for producing high-quality visualizations and maps for publications, presentations and posters. In this workshop we will provide detailed technical explanations as well as practical examples to learn and try out the main concepts of PyGMT.

For both beginner and advanced Python users, this workshop will cover techniques for manipulating geospatial and geophysical data, widely utilized in the Earth, Ocean, and Planetary Science communities, providing participants with the necessary skills to extract meaningful insights and effectively communicate their findings through clear and informative maps and visualizations.

We expressly welcome students and geoscientists working in any geo-related field, e.g., Earth Observation, Geophysics (seismology, magnetic, gravity), Oceanography or Planetary sciences, to join. Come and find out what PyGMT can do to level up your geoprocessing workflow!

Convener: Wei Ji LeongECSECS | Co-conveners: Yvonne FröhlichECSECS, Andre Luiz Belem
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Crafting and publishing papers is a crucial part of science communication, but it can be challenging. Whether you are working on your first draft, or perfecting your tenth, there can still be uncertainties about good writing and the publishing process. This course aims to provide early career scientists with straightforward guidelines for effectively communicating their research and, consequently, enhancing their prospects of successful publication. In this short course you will have the opportunity to meet editors of internationally renowned journals in the field of geoscience, hydrology and biogeoscience. After a short introduction of the editors, we will explore various facets of scientific writing and publishing, such as:
●How to start and improve an efficient writing process?
●What are the duties, roles and rights of editors, authors and reviewers?
●How to choose a suitable journal for your manuscript and what is important for early career authors?
●How to address reviewers' comments?
In this short course, there will be an opportunity to have an open discussion about how to make your manuscript ready for submission and navigate the peer-reviewing process. Together with the editors from different journals, we will explore other aspects, complementary to writing a paper, such as preparing the cover letters, choosing a suitable journal and understanding your rights as an author.
If you like to learn what is required to become a good peer-reviewer join the short course: Meet the Editors (3): How to peer-review - Fundamentals & EGU’s model. Both short courses can be attended independently.

Convener: Romano ClementucciECSECS | Co-conveners: Janek WalkECSECS, Julia SchroederECSECS, Robert HouseagoECSECS, Faranak TootoonchiECSECS
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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 (more details on publishing are provided in the short course “Meet the Editors 1&2”), 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 organised? 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.
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).
Moreover, if you are interested in the aspects of writing and publishing your manuscript – don’t miss the short courses “Meet the Editors 1 & 2” about how to write, revise and publish your manuscript. All parts of the “Meet the Editors” short courses can be listened to independently.

Convener: Wioleta PorębnaECSECS | Co-conveners: Lingxiao Gong, Janek WalkECSECS, Barbara Ervens, Robert HouseagoECSECS
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This session will bring together representatives from key political institutions. Each speaker will provide insights into what it’s like to work in policy, 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.

Convener: Mario Scharfbillig | Co-conveners: Chloe Hill, Noel Baker
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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 + confidence
Early career and underrepresented scientists are particularly encouraged to participate as they can gain the most from the learning outcomes of this short course.

Convener: Antara Dasgupta | Co-conveners: Hannah Cloke, Simon ClarkECSECS, Hazel Gibson
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Writing is one of the most difficult tasks for many geoscientists, especially for those whose native tongue is not English. Writing is a skill that cannot be learned from reading a book; it needs practice, and a large amount of it. It is also a lonely job; in this workshop, you will work with colleagues and share.

This hands-on, participatory workshop will help you pinpoint the writing skills that you may wish to practice. We will ask you to write very short texts, for which you will get immediate feedback and solid tips. Activities in the workshop include: a writing game and a writing tips panel. The current plan of the SC is as follows:
o A warm-up exercise;
o An overview of writing issues;
o A hands-on, small-group, participatory game;
o A short writing-tip panel;
o A short debrief and discussion.
The plan will be modified according to numbers.

Some of the conveners are editors of the EGU journal, Geoscience Communication, but we believe that this workshop will be of use to all geoscientists. All authors and potential authors of all EGU journals will be most welcome. Beginner and intermediate authors will probably gain most from this workshop.

Please note that some workshop materials will allow up to 48 participants, on a first-come basis. Additional people will be invited to conduct guided observation 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).

Co-sponsored by IAPG
Convener: David Crookall | Co-conveners: Caitlyn Hall, Sebastian Mutz, Pimnutcha PromduangsriECSECS
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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. 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. Experts will showcase a wide range of educational materials, concepts, and methods in a “market stall” format, where participants can directly engage and learn about novel ideas in geoscience education for children. 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.
------ People interested in participating as an expert are invited to contact the session conveners and share their ideas! ------

Convener: Julia FohrafellnerECSECS | Co-conveners: Giulia Bongiorno, Taru Sandén, Laura Hobbs, Giulia EvangelistaECSECS
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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessments depend on contributions from scientists and other stakeholders with a wide range of backgrounds and expertise. There are multiple ways to engage with and contribute to the IPCC assessment process and outreach, but the different pathways and opportunities may not be familiar to those who have not previously been involved.
This short course aims to share information about these different pathways and offer participants, regardless of their academic background or career stage, insights from people with experience engaging with the IPCC in different capacities. Topics may include the nomination and selection of IPCC authors, working in an IPCC Technical Support Unit (TSU), serving as an Expert Reviewer, collaborating with the IPCC as a non-profit organisation, and other opportunities to contribute to or engage with the IPCC process. By bringing together experiences from different forms of engagement with the IPCC, the course aims to make opportunities for participation more visible and accessible to the wider climate sciences and geosciences community.
The course will combine short contributions from speakers with different experiences, including IPCC authors, members of IPCC Technical Support Units, members of a non-profit organisation, and the organizer(s) of the Early Career Researcher (ECR) group review, followed by an open Q&A and discussion with participants. We particularly encourage ECRs to interact and discuss with the speakers.

Convener: Yongmei Gong | Co-conveners: Ivonne Albarus, Yona Silvy
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Are you ready to present at EGU27? Have you presented already, and are interested in building upon you presentation skills? This short course will walk you through the fundamentals for building a compelling scientific presentations by looking at the design, structure and story you tell, from oral talks to posters for both virtual and in-person presentations. This session will be interactive, and provide space to learn not just from the presenters but also from each other.
The session will introduce how presentations are organised an EGU, and walk through the best practices for creating a presentation: learn how to break down complexity to tell a coherent story, structure your research through slides and for posters, incorporate lessons from visual design, and discover what common pitfalls you should look out for.
This short course is for anyone who wants to learn about the fundamental practices for delivering an engaging presentation at a scientific conference, whether this is your first time or if you’re looking to refresh your presentations!

Convener: Simon ClarkECSECS | Co-conveners: Marius SchlaakECSECS, Mozhgan AmiramjadiECSECS, Bartosz PuzioECSECS
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This short course is being organized in conjunction with a Geoscience and Society session, and is intended to provide an opportunity to try out educational tools and modules in an interactive small-group setting. If you would like to share an educational tool, platform, or curriculum module, please either submit to the GS poster session with the same name or contact the conveners. This course will also be an opportunity for students and early career researchers looking for learning opportunities, and for educators to try out and discuss new computational approaches to earth and environmental science educators.
The landscape of earth science education is shifting quickly due to emerging technologies and shifting priorities, which present both challenges and opportunities in pedagogy. Satellites, genetic sequencing, long-term in situ sensors, model results and reanalyses, digitized collections and citizen science are producing massive datasets, requiring students in earth and environmental sciences to learn scientific computing skills to utilise them. However, many students in earth and environmental science degree programs report lacking the computational skills needed to work with earth observation data.
At the same time, ubiquitous access to computing can help universities meet goals around educating more scientists by accelerating learning and lowering the barrier to entry with technologies such as virtual labs and cloud-based learning environments. Emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, further expand these possibilities but also raise questions about ethical use and how best to support meaningful student engagement and scientific understanding.
This short course invites researchers, educators, industry practitioners, and representatives from other organisations working in Earth and environmental science education to share innovative and effective approaches to developing geospatial and computational skills in Earth and environmental science education. We welcome contributions describing successful courses, programmes, learning environments, and other educational tools, as well as experiences evaluating their impact and accessibility. 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.

Convener: Elsa Culler | Co-conveners: Amina Maroini, David Whipp, Lisa Beck
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Funders increasingly expect researchers to demonstrate not just scientific excellence, but real-world relevance, with Horizon Europe and some national funding bodies placing growing emphasis on policy and societal impact. Despite this, many researchers and consortia still treat policy impact as an afterthought rather than an aspect that should be integrated into the research design from the outset.

This Short Course will provide a practical, hands-on guide for embedding policy impact into your research proposals. This includes how to identify realistic policy stakeholders and engagement pathways early in proposal development, what Horizon Europe and other funding programmes actually expect from communication, dissemination, and exploitation plans, and how to write impact statements that are convincing. It will also provide practical examples of the different ways in which research consortia can influence policy along with some common pitfalls and how to avoid them.

The last part of the session will include an interactive Q&A where participants can bring their own proposal challenges to the panel. This Short Course is relevant for researchers of all career levels, whether you’re leading a research consortia, part of the team, or hoping to join one in the future.

Convener: Damla Posta | Co-conveners: Alexandra Singer, Emmanuel Salmon, Erika von Schneidemesser
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Engaging people with science is fundamental to the experience of being a scientist. People’s experiences of engaging in science communication efforts vary widely, from gratifying and fulfilling to intimidating and challenging. Some people have made science communication their entire career, and some simply want to explain to their friends how they spend their time. Every one of these engagement efforts is valuable to the connection between science and society – grounding research in reality and providing a pathway to positivity toward science and scientists.
The goal of science communication may be enhanced dialogue, understanding, resilience, awareness, enthusiasm, influencing sustainable behaviour change, improving decision making, and/or community building. Projects can have widely varying objectives depending on their scale, scope, and methods. Depending on the intended impact, and the demographics of the audience, tactics and strategies can be used to create environments that result in different participant experiences.
Activities focussed on cultivating emotive experiences with the subject matter, regardless of learning outcomes, can have significant impact and enhance audiences’ connection with the natural world in a lasting manner. Encouraging and facilitating audiences to feel welcomed by, and create positive emotional association with, the concept of science is critical to pervasive perception change. The communication goals do not always align with the audience’s expectations. Balancing these needs, as well as adapting the tone of the engagement, is important in reaching your intended impact.
With a focus on creative or unexpected methods, accompanied by evidence-based examples of impact, this session invites you to learn from each other in a community of practice seeking to and advance the effective communication of geoscience.

Co-sponsored by GSL
Convener: Thomas HarveyECSECS | Co-convener: Megan O'DonnellECSECS
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Communicating complex space science and engineering concepts to diverse audiences, from high schoolers and university students to the general public, is a rewarding but challenging task. This interactive short course shares practical experiences, accessible tools, and strategies for effective public engagement and outreach in space science and engineering.

During this session, we will explore a range of scalable outreach methods, including:

Public Engagement: Utilizing tools like interactive polls, gamified activities, and dynamic public events to deliver impactful messages to general audiences.

High School Workshops: Building simple, hands-on kits that allow younger students to conceptually design space missions and construct basic satellites.

Higher Education: Developing slightly more advanced (yet accessible) satellite models for university courses, making complex engineering concepts easier and more engaging to grasp.

Furthermore, we will discuss the critical role of accessible software and Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components in keeping these educational kits affordable and easily reproducible.

Format & Interaction:
Designed to accommodate both on-site and virtual attendees, this session features an interactive format. Participants will have the opportunity to test out existing tools, exchange ideas, and brainstorm designs for their own outreach materials.

Convener: Niki SajjadECSECS | Co-conveners: Supriya Chakrabarti, Olga Khabarova, Chantale Damas, Kamen Kozarev
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Science advice plays a critical role in supporting evidence-informed decision-making, yet many researchers remain uncertain about what it involves, who needs it, and how to provide it effectively. Despite this, many researchers and scientific organisations find it challenging know what scientific evidence policymakers need, who their target audience is, and how to provide it in a way that will be useful.

This session will outline basic science for policy concepts, methods to engage meaningfully with policymakers, and how researchers can give impactful science advice. It will highlight different forms of science advice, the stages of the policy cycle when it is needed, and what separates “good” science advice from “bad”. A panel of science for policy experts will also give participants practical tips on how to effectively engage with policymakers, examples of successful initiatives, and upcoming opportunities for researchers to provide advice.

If you’ve ever wanted your research to have a bigger impact, considered engaging in policy, or wondered why decision-makers haven't picked up on your research yet, this is the session for you!

Convener: Chloe Hill | Co-conveners: Noel Baker, Erika von Schneidemesser, Megan O'DonnellECSECS, Alfonso Acosta
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Geosciences can change thinking and practice in the world—if society can understand what we are saying. Effective science communication does not always have to be serious. Humor and creativity can make scientific ideas more engaging, accessible, and memorable. This hands-on short course will explore how humor can be used in geoscience communication: what makes something funny, when a joke helps an idea land versus when it merely makes the scientist regret having a social media account.

The course will begin with some context and examples, including short sketches or other pieces prepared in advance by participants who have signed up (see link below) and been invited by the course organizers, in all our wisdom. Participants will then work individually or in groups to develop and test their own material, using geoscience topics and, where useful, material from Geoscience Communication and other EGU journals. Approximately 20 minutes will be reserved for pre-prepared performances or other participant contributions, leaving substantial time for spontaneous contributions from those who arrive without anything prepared. No previous experience in science communication, comedy, art, or performance is required—although a willingness to look slightly ridiculous may be useful. We will finish by reflecting on what worked, what did not, and what we might learn from communicating geoscience in ways that are considerably less serious than usual.

The short course is part of a rotating, Geoscience Communication Editors-led format at EGU, with each edition exploring a different creative approach to communicating geoscience. This time the theme is humor; editions in future years could explore poetry, games, visual art, performance, or other ways of communicating science without putting the audience to sleep.

Those interested in participating can sign up here: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=S1xNYsVFIkGM0ETw-E6UXWU_sittJCZPkwvEOEUP1xBUMUgwUzlaOU1QWk0wWFVCRUEzNVVaWk5WWS4u

The short form will help us gauge interest in different humor formats (e.g., comic strips, digital art, sketches, science slams, or stand-up comedy) and identify participants interested in preparing material in advance, allowing us to tailor the short course accordingly.

Convener: Shahzad Gani | Co-conveners: John K. Hillier, Kirsten v. Elverfeldt, Sebastian Mutz, Solmaz Mohadjer
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Building on our successful EGU26 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.

Convener: Abinesh GanapathyECSECS | Co-conveners: Ankit Agarwal, Jeewanthi SirisenaECSECS
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The European Green Deal aims to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent. This will require sweeping transformation across Europe's energy, transport, and industrial sectors alongside substantial investment in clean technology and a just transition for affected communities. This transition cannot happen without the support and expertise of the research community.

Researchers developing new technologies and a deep understanding of societal engagement with them play a critical role in driving green innovation. Thus, their active participation in entrepreneurial ventures and the innovation process is also essential for the successful implementation of the Green Deal.

This Short Course will explore programmes, challenges, and opportunities for scientists to engage in the innovation process, and how a just transition can be ensured for communities most affected by structural changes in the economy and energy systems. A panel of experts working on the Green Transition, be it through research exploitation or innovation, will focus on the best practices that have thus far successfully supported the green transition and outline gaps and needs, along with the political, economic, and social barriers of greenovation. Panelists will also discuss how the entanglement of economy and research creates a positive feedback loop that boosts foundational research and blue sky activities, which can also lead to innovation and science with benefits beyond the economy. Lastly, it will discuss the opportunities to ensure a just transition for affected communities and some strategies to deal with situations where scientific evidence may be at odds with this

If you want to contribute actively to green innovation, or if you are curious about what is needed for your research to have an impact in innovation and to accelerate the green transition, don't miss this session!

Convener: Marie G. P. Cavitte | Co-conveners: Chloe Hill, Megan O'DonnellECSECS, Marco Masia, Ilias Grampas

SC4 – Short courses introducing field you are not in

Sub-Programme Group Scientific Officers: Rolf Hut, Maria Vittoria Gargiulo

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Earth’s climate is the paradigm of a dynamical system: multiscale, nonlinear, chaotic, stochastic, out of equilibrium and multistable. This makes dynamical systems theory a powerful tool for understanding the complex variability found in earth system models, paleo records and observations. However, there is often a barrier between the modern mathematical development of dynamical systems theory and the application of its concepts to real problems in climate science, especially concerning transient climate change.

Bridging between theory and application, this short course offers a modern dynamical systems 101 for climate scientists and modelers. We will particularly focus on the case of time-dependent (or non-autonomous) systems, which is crucial in the context of a changing climate. In an accessible and hands-on format, we will discuss key formal concepts behind tipping points, extremes, transient dynamics and climate predictability. Topics include metastability, tipping, extreme value theory, large deviation theory, chaos and predictability, response theory, ensemble design and interpretation as well as uncertainty quantification. The course will also showcase numerical analysis tools that can be used to apply dynamical systems ideas across the climate model hierarchy - from low-dimensional, conceptual models to earth system models.

Convener: Reyk BörnerECSECS | Co-conveners: Vera Melinda Galfi, Francisco de Melo ViríssimoECSECS
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Many problems across geoscience share mathematical challenges: incomplete observations, uncertainty, nonlinear and multiscale dynamics, model error, large datasets, and limited predictability. The course introduces applied mathematical ways of thinking about such problems arising throughout atmospheric and oceanic science, biogeosciences, hydrology, cryosphere, and many other subfields. Rather than teaching several techniques in depth, it helps participants recognize the mathematical structure of a scientific problem, understand what different approaches can and cannot provide, and identify pathways for deeper learning. Such insights will give participants complementary skills to their own expertise that help them refine scientific questions and produce a more meaningful formulation.
The course is organized around four questions: What can we predict? How uncertain are we? What can we infer from incomplete observations? What can we learn from data? Through a small number of representative examples, we show how perspectives from dynamical modeling and predictability, uncertainty quantification, data assimilation and inverse problems, and data-driven and machine-learning approaches can address different aspects of these questions. Short explanations will be paired with browser-based interactive experiments using simple models.
Participants will receive an Applied Mathematics for Geoscience Starter Kit containing reusable tutorials, interactive examples, a scientific-question-to-method roadmap, and curated resources for further learning, software, online materials, scientific communities, and meetings. The course concludes with practical guidance on choosing next steps, finding relevant expertise, and building collaborations across applied mathematics, data science, and geoscience.

Convener: Nan Chen | Co-conveners: Reza Malek-Madani, Pedram Hassanzadeh, Cornelis Vuik, Charlotte MoserECSECS
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Discover the basics of Geodesy and geodetic data! Geodetic data, from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS)to gravity measurements, play a crucial role in societal application as well as Earth sciences, including hydrology, glaciology, geodynamics, oceanography, and seismology. Are you curious about what these data can (and cannot) tell us?

This short course offers a crash course in core geodetic concepts, giving you the insights, you need to better understand the advantages and limitations of geodetic data. In 60 minutes, we will take you on a ride across geodetic datasets. We'll start with reference frames, the core definition of any global coordinates, then move on to the workings of GNSS and its possible pitfalls, before landing on measurements of the Earth's gravity field and what they can tell us about the changes in Earth system and climate. None of these endeavours would be possible for a single scientist or a single country alone, so we will end with a glimpse into the international collaboration needed to sustain these diverse geodetic datasets, and products, and how users can find and access them.

While you won’t become a full-fledged geodesist by the end, you’ll walk away with a clearer picture of how to use these datasets across various fields. No laptop or prior knowledge of geodetic data analysis is required. Led by scientists from the Geodesy Division, this course is open to all — whether you frequently work with geodetic data or are simply curious about what geodesists do. Expect lively discussions and practical insights, and for geodesists in the room, a chance to learn what non-geodesists actually need when working with geodetic data.

Convener: Eva Boergens | Co-conveners: Alexander KehmECSECS, Martin Sehnal, Radosław ZajdelECSECS
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Thousands of exoplanets have been discovered so far. Remote observations (including PLATO that is to be launched in April 2027) provide constraints on radii, masses, and atmospheric compositions, offering crucial insights into the physical and chemical properties of these worlds. Yet, without techniques long developed in the geosciences, it is impossible to fully interpret such data.

This short course will begin with an introduction to exoplanet observations, then progress through planetary structure, composition, mineralogy, cloud formation, atmospheric chemistry, and dynamics. It will highlight how methods from climate and atmosphere science, geophysics, geochemistry, and experimental petrology are applied to exoplanet research.

The aim is to provide participants with the physical understanding and computational tools needed to characterise exoplanets. The course is designed for (early-career) scientists from diverse backgrounds.

Convener: Kaustubh Hakim | Co-conveners: Ludmila Carone, Christiane Helling
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This short course introduces non-geologists to the fundamental principles of plate tectonics, structural geology, petrology, and geomorphology, showing how geologists study Earth’s materials and processes. A one-day pre-conference field excursion will give the participants hands-on experience to link observations in nature with geological theory.

The data available to geologists are inherently incomplete, reflecting the complexity of natural systems and providing only a partial record of the geological history of our planet. To make sense of such limited information, geologists need to develop strong observational skills, master field techniques, and apply analytical methods to interpret the data accurately. By doing so, they gain an understanding of how the Earth has evolved through space and time, from its origins to the present day.

We cover the following topics:
0) Pre-conference field excursion – Linking observation and theory
1) The principles of geology – From mantle to surface
2) Mantle – Understanding the interior of the Earth
3) Crust – What rocks reveal about Earth’s processes
4) Surface – How landscapes form and evolve on Earth
5) Q&A

Pre-conference field excursion:
Following a successful trip last year, we host a half-day geological excursion that combines field observations with the theory behind Earth’s materials, and processes, while also providing an opportunity to connect with fellow participants. The excursion takes place on the Sunday before the General Assembly, within 60 minutes by public transport from central Vienna. Participants should bring their own lunch; no additional costs are involved. Guided by the course experts, participants will explore rocks, structures, and landscapes in the field, discuss their formation and evolution, and finish with a social get together in a Heuriger. The excursion is designed at an entry level, giving participants a sense of how geologists study rocks in the field. Closer to the GA27, this section will be updated with logistical details.

60-minute short course:
Our aim is not to turn you into a geology specialist, but to give you an idea of the data we use to study the Earth. We will introduce some of the methods currently used to collect geological data and we will show the challenges geologists face in the field. The course is designed to give you a feel for the capabilities of geological research and to foster interdisciplinary thinking and curiosity.

Convener: Rosa de BoerECSECS | Co-conveners: Alessandro PetrocciaECSECS, Silvia Crosetto, Eshbal GeifmanECSECS
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How do seismologists detect and locate earthquakes? Is seismology only about earthquakes? Seismology is an essential tool across various geo-disciplines, complementing fields like Tectonics, Geology, Geodynamics, Volcanology, Hydrology, Glaciology, and Planetology.

In Seismology 101, we will introduce the fundamental concepts and methods of seismology. This course remains tailored to those unfamiliar with the subject, particularly early career scientists. We will provide an overview of key methods and processing techniques applicable to surface processes, near-surface geological structures, and the Earth’s interior. The course will emphasise how advanced seismological techniques can enhance the interpretation of results from other disciplines.

Topics include:
– Basic principles of seismology, including earthquake detection and location
– Understanding and interpreting "beachballs" (focal mechanisms)
– The distinction between earthquake risks and hazards
– How to monitor in places that are hard to reach (OBS, DAS, ...)
– Applications of seismic methods for imaging the Earth’s interior (at various scales), deciphering tectonics, and monitoring volcanoes, landslides, glaciers, and more.

While we won’t turn you into the next Charles Richter in 60 minutes, we aim to increase your awareness of how seismology can support geoscience. Each topic will be discussed in a non-technical manner, highlighting both strengths and potential limitations. This course will help non-seismologists better understand seismic data and foster enriched interdisciplinary discussions.

The short course is organised by early career seismologists and geoscientists, who will present examples from their own research and high-impact reference studies for illustration. This short course is part of a series of introductory 101 courses on Geodesy, Geodynamics, Geology, Seismology, and Tectonic Modelling. All courses are led by experts who aim to make complex Earth science concepts accessible to non-experts.

Convener: David Schlaphorst | Co-conveners: Ana NapECSECS, Adam CiesielskiECSECS, Kira van HeldenECSECS, Laura BognerECSECS