eLTER hosts Global GERI partnership meeting to advance joint activities with international peers
Back-to-back with EGU 2026, eLTER hosted a hybrid meeting of the Global Ecosystem Research Infrastructure (GERI) partnership focused on developing joint activities of international peers. The workshop which took place on 8 May 2026 at Environment Agency Austria’s headquarters in Vienna, brought together representatives of leading site-based ecosystem research infrastructures from across the world (NEON in the USA, SAEON in South Africa, TERN in Australia, CERN in China, and ICOS and eLTER in Europe) to discuss shared priorities, progress achieved so far, and future opportunities for collaboration at the global scale.
The partnership is dedicated to advancing understanding of the functioning and change of indicator ecosystems across global biomes. By connecting long-term in-situ observation, data infrastructures, scientific expertise, and operational experience, GERI supports excellent science with the potential to inform policy and management decisions addressing major societal challenges.
The workshop relates to eLTER EnRich activities dedicated to fostering the international dimension of eLTER’s work.
Strengthening global collaboration for ecosystem research
The scientific rationale behind GERI is clear: many of today’s global socio-ecological challenges cannot be addressed by any single research infrastructure alone. Biodiversity loss, land-use transformation, pollution, ecosystem degradation, and shifts in biogeochemical cycles unfold across regions, biomes, and governance systems. Understanding these processes requires federated capabilities, shared standards, interoperable data, and sustained collaboration between infrastructures.
GERI creates opportunities to compare ecosystem processes across global gradients, improve data harmonisation, develop joint scientific use cases, support early career researchers, and build shared capacity for global-scale research.
The experience of GERI partners has been highly relevant for the conceptualisation and implementation of eLTER. Several collaborations have already taken place, including through eLTER EnRich and the eLTER Scientific Advisory Board. The hybrid workshop provided a timely opportunity to build on this foundation and identify concrete next steps for future cooperation.
Helmut Gaugitsch, Head of Programme for Biodiversity and International Cooperation at the Environment Agency Austria, opened the meeting and by highlighting EAA´s international cooperation activities and emphasising priorities shared with GERI, including standardised observation, open and FAIR data, integrated and sustainable approaches, and the strengthening of the science-policy interface. In the long history of integrated environmental observation and research dating back to the 1990s, EAA has always emphasized the importance of organisational and governance structures, national cooperation and coordination, and therefore engaged as a key Austrian counterpart for eLTER RI and the DEIMS-SDR site registry.
Updates from GERI partners and recent EGU discussions
Updates and highlights from GERI member networks, CERN, eLTER, ICOS, NEON, SAEON, and TERN, provided a broad overview of current developments across the partnership, from scientific priorities and infrastructure services to data workflows, community-building activities, and ongoing international collaborations.
Participants also reflected on relevant discussions from the week’s meetings at EGU 2026. This created a bridge between the broader Earth system science community and the focused work of GERI, helping to align emerging scientific needs with infrastructure capabilities and future collaboration opportunities.
Data harmonisation, capacity building and future collaboration
The workshop reviewed progress on GERI AccelNet, highlighting advances in data harmonisation, the importance of moving beyond FAIR principles towards genuine cross-infrastructure usability, and the role of harmonised long-term observations in supporting global ecosystem research. Discussions also emphasised continued investment in early career researchers through training, mentorship and international collaboration, while exploring future directions including risk management for research infrastructures, the alignment of GERI variables with Essential Variables frameworks, and approaches to improving the global representativity of ecosystem observation networks. Communication, dissemination and funding opportunities were recognised as essential for strengthening collaboration, increasing the visibility of research infrastructures among scientific, policy and stakeholder communities, and translating shared ambitions into concrete joint activities, scientific outputs and long-term partnerships.
A milestone for eLTER EnRich and global cooperation
The Global GERI partnership meeting demonstrated the value of sustained international cooperation between ecosystem research infrastructures.
As eLTER advances toward full operational maturity, international cooperation with GERI partners will continue to play an important role in shaping joint scientific and operational activities, supporting alignment across the research infrastructure landscape, and contributing to the next decade of Earth system science.