Geo-INQUIRE Final Annual Meeting 2026

Here we are with our Geo-INQUIRE Final Annual Meeting in Potsdam from 16 to 18 June 2026.

It was indeed an unexpected but truly memorable one: Despite a last minute bomb evacuation in Potsdam, WE managed it! Truly, only thanks to the amazing support of our Research Institute for Sustainability | am GFZ who welcomed us for the first day of the meeting with over 100 participants (!). Our always supportive GFZ Section 2.6 team, the flexible and amazing catering and thanks to all participants flexibility we were able to run the meeting as smooth as initially planned.

A special highlight this year was that we were welcoming "external" participants, among them early-career researchers and participants from the International Training Course supported this year by Geo-INQUIRE. Their flash talks, posters, and engagement in combination with Geo-INQUIRE services opened fruitful discussions and networking at our market place - during the coffee breaks.

We are also more thank thankful to the inspiring talks on key Geo-INQUIRE topics by our keynote speakers, as well as the great presentations during our TA Sessio perspectives on the TA programme and lively discussions on the future of research infrastructures and collaboration for European Plate Observing System, EMSO ERIC, ECCSEL ERIC and ChEESE CoE.

Looking at the group photo, we have to admit that our motto of "Geo-INQUIRE - a project involving 51 institutions from 23 countries" was a pure underestimation! Yet, this picture shows only a fraction of how much the Geo-INQUIRE community has grown over the past four years, crossing borders and involving participants from all over the world.

Overall until its end in September 2026 Geo-INQUIRE:
- will have trained around 3,000 participants
- > 50 events
- from ~90 countries,
- ~15-20% non-EU attendees
- 40+% female attendees!

While we had received several messages congratulating us for the efforts, we would like emphasize one more time: Yes, we always tried our best but the Project Management Office (Fabrice Cotton, Angelo Strollo, Mateus Litwin Prestes, Stefanie Weege and Elif Türker-Bakır) has always been much more than its five official team members! It is a "core-team" heavily supported by colleagues, partners, researchers and friends who made all of this possible.

Now, one final stop remains for our last Geo-INQUIRE meeting: Istanbul. We hope to see many of you there at the YSTC organized by @orfeus collegues! 

Thank you all for the great last 4 years!