NFDI4Earth Plenary 2026

We are looking forward to welcoming you at the NFDI4Earth Plenary 2026 from the 27th until the 29th of May 2026 in Dresden. The event will take place at "Deutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden", located at Lingnerplatz 1, 01069 Dresden.

All interested scientists from various research fields are very welcome to participate.

Registration is open by 11 May: https://redcap.zih.tu-dresden.de/redcap/surveys/?s=L3DPT7JAAXMFR4LH

Software Marketplace and Poster Session

We welcome your Earth System Sciences / research data management contributions. To submit your entry, please send the title of your poster or the name of your software, along with the author name(s), by April 30 to the nfdi4earth-coordination@tu-dresden.de. Since we expect more contributions than available spots, notifications will be sent by 8 May.

Workshops on Wednesday 

Water Science & Hydro Use Cases – GeoFRESH Hands-on

Sami Domisch (sami.domisch@igb-berlin.de), Jörg Seegert (joerg.seegert@tu-dresden.de)

Performing analyses on river networks can be challenging given the up- and downstream con-nectivity. Graph-based river networks are a promising avenue and provide an instrument for water research that can be employed globally in order to investigate e. g. the effects of built ob-stacles such as dams and weirs, which interrupt river networks and are barriers to migrating species. In our workshop, we will show various tools that can be used to perform river network computations directly on a server, which hosts a detailed global network of rivers and streams represented as a graph. In addition, we will show how to perform complex computations such as finding the upstream catchment area of a particular point, the downstream paths along the net-work all the way to the river outlet, or distances between two points along the river network (“as the fish swims”). We will introduce the river network dataset and the various tools, explain their usage, and provide an example analysis of river connectivity. Participants can use their own laptops if they have pre-installed the necessary packages, or follow the workshop using a pro-vided Jupyter Notebook.

BITS & Pieces - Exploring Semantic Tools in Earth System Science 

Claudia Martens (martens@dkrz.de), Anette Ganske (Anette.Ganske@tib.eu) 

Drop by and connect with the people behind BITS (Blueprints for the Integration of Terminology Services in Earth System Sciences) and the wider community we’ve collaborated with along the way. This booth is a relaxed space to explore what we’ve built, exchange ideas, and catch up with familiar faces - or meet new ones. We’ll showcase our blueprints, posters, and project outcomes, and share practical insights into integrating terminology services into real-world research data workflows. So whether you’re curious about semantic interoperability, looking for collaboration opportunities, or just want to chat, you’re very welcome to stop by. Enjoy some refreshment, say hello and be part of the conversation. We´re looking forward to meeting you! 

RDMO Earth-Sensor: A tool tailored to create data management plans for observation based research projects 

Corinna Rebmann (corinna.rebmann@kit.edu), Bjarne Biskamp (bjarne.biskamp@ufz.de)  

The Research Data Management Organiser (RDMO) supports research projects in the planning, implementation and administration of all research data management tasks. The Earth-Sensor catalogue supports features relevant for research projects that acquire observation data during field campaigns and long-term monitoring sites in earth-system sciences (ESS) as an instance hosted by NFDI4Earth. The Earth-Sensor RDMO catalogue will provide a user-friendly, interoperable solution for creating high-quality DMPs and support cross-institutional workflows. It is configured to enable harvesting sensor related metadata from the sensor management systems SMS and O2A-registry to allow users convenient dealing with metadata including their transfer to project related publications. The workshop will give an overview of the newly developed catalogue features. During the workshop, we will practice with the participants how to fill the DMP and gather feedback to further improve the catalogue’s usability. 

FAIR scientific knowledge with the TIB Knowledge Loom 

Markus Stocker (markus.stocker@tib.eu) 

The TIB Knowledge Loom (https://knowledgeloom.tib.eu/) is a novel open science digital library of FAIR scientific knowledge, i.e., research findings and supporting data. The workshop will introduce to the Loom, explain how researchers in Earth system sciences can contribute, and how the Loom in return can support data, code, and reproducibility statements in research articles. The workshop will also demonstrate how the Loom can support data reuse in knowledge synthesis and integration. The workshop will conclude with remarks on future directions for the Loom and the initiative. 

Geospatial foundation models - An introduction to applications and RDM challenges  

Fabian Gans (fgans@bgc-jena.mpg.de), Matthias Pohl (matthias.pohl@dlr.de)   

The workshop aims to provide an introduction to geospatial foundation models and the use of geospatial embeddings from the practitioner's view for geoscientists who are not deep learning experts.  In the first part we demonstrate typical application scenarios that highlight the potential of geospatial foundation models.   Afterwards we would like to invite the participants to an interactive discussion about challenges and potential solutions on the specific task of research data management around foundation model based workflows. 

Next Generation Educational Concepts for NFDI4Earth 

Dominik Hezel (dominik.hezel@em.uni-frankfurt.de) 

The new Task Area 2 (TA2) will implement a broad educational concept, comprising the education platform, curriculum development, the graduate school, as well as training schools. Led by Uni Frankfurt, Uni Leipzig, Uni Hannover, and Hochschule Bochum, TA 2 will broaden its training and education portfolio to reach, interest, and provide its services to as many Earth System Scientists as possible. We will look back and evaluate what worked and what needs to be improved, to then look ahead and start the discussion of how and when to transition into the next funding phase. Important aspects will be: 

• Identifying proliferation pathways for education & training into the ESS community, as well as identifying further needs regarding edu and training material. 
• Retain participants in NFDI4Earth education & training activities in an alumni network, as already initiated by the current Academy. 
• Identifying ways to sustain education & training within the NFDI4Earth and the NFDI. 

Workshops on Thursday 

AI use in NFDI4Earth 

Auriol Degbelo (auriol.degbelo@tu-dresden.de) 

This workshop intends to provide a platform where stakeholders designing/using AI in the Earth System Sciences can connect. It will include input talks from NFDI4Earth members and cover topics such as resource sharing, competence sharing and synergies. 

Ten Months of NFDI4Earth Label: Adoption, Lessons Learned, and Future Directions 

Ronny Gey (ronny.gey@ufz.de), Robert Brylka (robert.brylka@senckenberg.de) 

Since its release in July 2025, the NFDI4Earth Label has been introduced as a tool for assessing and increasing the visibility of repositories in the context of FAIR and open data. Over the past ten months, initial experiences have been gathered based on a first group of participating repositories as well as the evaluation process itself. 

This workshop provides an overview of the current level of adoption, the diversity of participating repositories, and first observed effects on quality and transparency. It further addresses key challenges and areas for improvement identified during this early phase. The goal is to exchange experiences within the community and to collect input for the further development and broader adoption of the label. 

In addition, the workshop will explore how the label has supported exchange processes between repositories, aggregators, and infrastructures by initiating discussions on metadata quality, interfaces, and inconsistencies, with initial observations suggesting that these exchanges have contributed to targeted service improvements and an increased awareness of curation quality. 

NFDI4Earth Living Handbook - from the past to the future 

Ivonne Anders (anders@dkrz.de), Jie Xu (xu@em.uni-frankfurt.de) 

Since the launch of the NFDI4Earth Living Handbook (LHB), our community has authored and contributed a total of 150 articles covering various aspects of research data management, the data lifecycle, and the outcomes of NFDI4Earth and its products, such as pilot projects and incubators. Looking ahead, we are now at a turning point where we want to/could further develop the LHB to make it more dynamic, attractive, and user-friendly for submitting articles. We will present options regarding the role the LHB should play within NFDI4Earth in its second project phase. We would like to discuss and coordinate these with you and therefore invite you to support shaping the NFDI4Earth Living Handbook. 

Synergies in Service (Information) Management 

Kemeng Liu (liu.kemeng@uni-hamburg.de), Christin Henzen (christin.henzen@tu-dresden.de) with Christian Schäfer-Neth (Base4NFDI)

This workshop aims to bring together service users, service providers, and stakeholders involved in service and software information management across NFDI4Earth and related initiatives. It seeks to develop a shared understanding of how services are, and should be, described, integrated, operated, and monitored within a federated research infrastructure. A key focus is on aligning perspectives between service providers and users, while also sharing current approaches to service registration and management. Participants will explore how services can be categorized, onboarded, and integrated within NFDI4Earth as well as with external infrastructures. Through impulse talks and interactive discussions, the workshop will collect experiences, identify synergies, and outline potential next steps to improve the service information management ecosystem.

Key Information Products 

Sibylle Hassler (sibylle.hassler@kit.edu)