Connecting the German Planetary Community with EuroPlanet via the newly founded German Society for Planetary Research (DGP)

At EPSC 2024 held in Berlin, Germany, the idea was born to bring the German Planetary Sciences community together in a new Society, to make activities in the field of planetary research more visible within Germany and beyond, to promote scientific exchange, and to strengthen cooperation between researchers, institutions and companies. In May 2025 in Münster, the German Society for Planetary Research (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Planeten­forschung, DGP, https://www.planet-dgp.de/) was then founded.

The society was introduced at an international level at EPSC-DPS 2025 in Helsinki, Finland, at a splinter meeting with about 60 participants. Since the new DGP Society and the EuroPlanet Germany Hub share many common goals, the German community (i.e. either German-speaking or working in a German institution) decided at the EPSC-DPS splinter meeting to join forces under the main umbrella of the new society.

The early-career community within Germany also created their independent subnetwork with the DGP, and following the EPEC name convention, are called "DGPEC". They organize early-career activities at the annual meetings of the DGP and at EPSC, as well as virtual get-togethers throughout the year, and present individual early-career members and their current research projects to the community as part of the monthly DGP newsletter.

The First Annual Meeting of the DGP & Europlanet Germany Hub was organized this year in March 16-18 at Freie Universität Berlin and attracted more than 200 participants and 131 scientific abstracts.

Here we will present the current status of setting up the society and links to EuroPlanet, as well as current and planned community activities.