On Sunday before the Sixth European Conference on Permafrost officially started, the GTN-P Community was invited to meet for an evening workshop in the library of Puigcerdà. First, the GTN-P Office presented some basic information and updates, regarding funding, participants, GTN-P organization and structure, data entries and webpage and database views. Then, we got an update on the CALM synthesis paper and some insights into GTN-P data usage by the ESA Climate Change Initiative Project, as well as for on annual reporting activities. The last part of our presentation slot was filled with information about how GTN-P is involved in WMO activities by actively contributing to the Permafrost Best Practice chapter for the WMO Guide and how it contributes to GCOS TOPCS activities.
After we all received lots of input, the second half of our workshop was the more interactive and fun one!
We split into three breakout groups, gathered ideas and discussed the GTN-P data and database usage, joint GTN-P publications and GTN-P community actions and GTN-P office support. We received a lot of very valuable input concerning all themes. Suggestions for improving the GTN-P database included requirements to flag data, give datasets DOIs, bulk data up- and download, make the whole data upload and download process more intuitive and organize a data user workshop targeting more in detail data users’ needs. The publications group was mainly concentrating on discussing knowledge gaps which can be answered by analyses based on our large GTN-P dataset. Further, we discussed a new GTN-P special issue, as a succession of the GTN-P special issue during IPY. The group discussing the organization of the GTN-P network and office mainly talked about how to improve the visibility of GTN-P among Early Career Researchers and how to attract new data contributors. Luckily, we just welcomed the new Young National Correspondent Representative Saskia Eppinger to our GTN-P Steering. She is full of ideas and enthusiasm, so you will hear more about GTN-P in the coming months in networks like PYRN, or APECS!
We wish to thank all participants of the GTN-P Workshop for a very fruitful, fun and vibrant meeting. It was wonderful to see you all, talk to you and interact with you! We hope to welcome you back to our next GTN-P virtual General Assembly at the 16th of November, or to our next GTN-P workshop during the 12th ICOP in Whitehorse, Canada next year!
Anna on behalf of the GTN-P SC
