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Grow Your Idea!

The partners of the Geo.X network hold the scientific expertise and infrastructure to run collaborative projects in many fields of geoscience research including inter- and transdisciplinary approaches. We want to trigger a creative scientific process to help research ideas grow into collaborative projects. To support this aim, we regularly open calls to provide financial support and help in the organization of various exchange formats such as round tables, workshops with invited guests, retreats and others.

 

The call for spring 2024 is now closed!

For more information please visit the Grow Your Idea! website.

Supported ideas of the autumn call 2023

Please find below a list of the proposed ideas that are financially supported in the autumn call 2023. The workshops and round table discussions will take place in autumn 2023 and winter 2024. If you are interested in one of the ideas, please get in touch with the contact persons.

Permafrost landforms and climate change on Earth (Svalbard) and Mars

Date
1st roundtable discussion: 8th December 2023
2nd roundtable discussion: 23rd February 2024

Organizers
Ernst Hauber (DLR)
, Julia Boike (AWI), Guido Grosse (AWI)

Objective:
Our team consists of researchers who study permafrost on the Arctic archipelago, Svalbard, both from a terrestrial and a planetary perspective (terrestrial landforms as analogues for Mars). Both sides have a long-term record of such studies, and there is considerable potential for collaboration. The Geo.X-sponsored meetings will enable us to jointly discuss research ideas that benefit Earth and Mars science, and to design efficient field and flight campaigns optimized to serve both the planetary and terrestrial geoscience communities.

Please find more information on the round table discussion here.

The imprint of deep time climate variability in modern biodiversity patterns

Date
20th - 22th March 2024

Organizer
Georg Feulner (PIK)

Summary
Spatial biodiversity patterns result from complex eco-evolutionary feedbacks with the environment like continental movements, upfolding of mountain chains, and accompanying climatic variations. In this workshop, we want to bring together a group of paleoclimate and paleoecology experts with ecosystem and biodiversity modellers to identify a road map for researching the role of paleoclimatic variations on biodiversity dynamics and cascading effects on ecosystem structure.

Please find more information about the workshop and registration here.

Identifying value-judgements in climate impact science across the Geo.X network

Date
20th - 21st June 2024

Organizers
Sabine Undorf (PIK)

Summary
This participatory workshop will bring together philosophers and an interdisciplinary range of scientists to explore the presence and impact of value-laden assumptions and methodology choices within the wider field of climate impact science, building on the recognition that such value-awareness can tangibly benefit the societal relevance and legitimacy of scientific results.

Please find more information about the workshop and registration here.

Connecting paleoclimate research on the Telegrafenberg campus and within the Geo.X network

Date
29th January 2024

Organizer
Matteo Willeit (PIK)

Objective:
In light of the current climate crisis, there is increasing interest in palaeoclimate research. This serves as a critical tool to validate Earth-system models utilised for future projections, explore historical parallels for impending warming, and gain deeper insights into Earth system interactions and feedbacks to develop future sustainable human interactions with the Earth system. Within the Potsdam-Berlin region, various groups and institutions offer extensive expertise in palaeoclimate studies, employing a wide array of methodological approaches. This event aims to facilitate idea exchange, address challenges from various methodological perspectives, plan joint publications, and investigate opportunities for collaborative funding proposals.

Please find more information on the workshop here.

Reviving historical coral museum collections to decipher past geochemical climate signals

Date
23rd-24th November 2023

Organizers
Laura Lehnhoff (FU),
Steve Doo (MfN), Carsten Lüter (MfN), Valby van Schijndel (GFZ)

Summary
The Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin houses an extensive coral collection, comprising corals with well-documented collection sites, spanning over 200 years of acquisition. These specimens contain historical climate and environmental data, encompassing periods both before and after the onset of the industrial era. To tap into this valuable resource, this two-day round table seeks to bring together local Geo.X members with a group of external experts. The goal is to chart the optimal path to utilize the museum’s unique assortment of coral skeletons trough geochemical analyses to enhance the understanding of past environmental stress signals.

Please find more information about the workshop and registration here.

Supported ideas of the spring call 2023

Please find below a list of the proposed ideas that are financially supported in the spring call 2023. The workshops and round table discussions take place in summer and autumn 2023. If you are interested in one of the ideas, please get in touch with the contact persons.

Constraining the climate and interior evolution of Mars as recorded by the Martian polar ice caps

Date
1st workshop: 29th August 2023
2nd workshop: 20th October 2023
3rd workshop: 4th December 2023

Organizers
Ana-Catalina Plesa (DLR), Volker Klemann (GFZ Potsdam), Tobias Sauter (HU Berlin)

Summary
Martian polar caps provide important clues about the climate evolution and the interior properties of our neighbor planet. The polar caps represent a record of Martian climate history throughout the Amazonian period and a significant load on the lithosphere, whose deformation provides constraints on the present-day thermal state of the Martian subsurface.

Drivers of climate risks in Europe: harmonizing research on impact attribution of past events

Date
22nd September 2023

Organizers
Dominik Paprotny (PIK),
Matthias Mengel (PIK)

Summary
Impact attribution is a quickly developing field of research that particularly seeks to discover how much climate change has already increased the losses caused by recent natural disasters. As there is no standard method of carrying out such research, the DisasterDrivers group aims to bring together researchers from Geo.X and beyond in a one-day workshop to discuss and tackle this problem by identifying common approaches, shareable datasets and best practices used to study impacts of different types of hazards such as floods, droughts, wildfires, windstorms and heat waves.

Please find more information about the workshop and registration here.

Coordination meeting for the application of a DFG Forschungsgruppe on the topic "Climate and Water under Change"

Date
6th November 2023

Organizer
Tobias Sauter (HU Berlin)

Summary
Two discussion rounds are planned with scientists from the Einstein Research Group Climate and Water under Change (CliWaC). This transdisciplinary research initiative, which is dedicated to the study of water-related risks of climate change in the Berlin-Brandenburg region, will end at the end of 2024. In the discussion rounds, the possibilities of the continuation of the project will be discussed.

Please find more information about the workshop and registration here.

Reconstructing Environmental Changes in the Swiss Alps

Date
8th - 10th November 2023

Organizer
Norbert Marwan (PIK)

Summary
We aim to establish an interdisciplinary research group and develop a project proposal focused on utilizing caves and cave-based palaeoenvironmental records to investigate landscape and environmental changes of the Swiss Alps during the late Quaternary. The Saegistal region in Switzerland provides a unique opportunity to reconstruct glaciation dynamics and geomorphological evolution using a range of techniques, including the use of caves for dating glacier advances and studying topographic and geomorphological development, speleothem-based clumped isotopes for palaeothermometry, trace elements for assessing water availability, and cryogenic carbonates as permafrost time markers. Preliminary studies conducted in the region demonstrate the high potential for environmental reconstructions through cave documentation and speleothem analysis.

Please find more information about the workshop here.

Please find here an overview of the funded "Grow Your Idea" events from 2022.