2026-esa
2026 ESA Openscapes Champions
Welcome to the 2026 ESA Openscapes Cohort! This is a Cohort for European Space Agency (ESA) affiliated researchers and people supporting ESA research to explore open data science practices and strengthen collaboration and reproducibility. To learn more about what to expect (the purpose, outcomes, and process of our Cohort) and to browse the open lesson materials, please see the Champions Program Lesson Series.
This Cohort has completed and their work is featured in a blog post, “On-ramp to FAIR data in the EarthCODE Federation”, and at ESA EarthCODE.
Cohort Agendas
We will meet as a Cohort via Zoom five times over two months for 1.5 hours each:
- Dates: April 15, 29, May 13, 27, June 10
- Times: 14:00 - 15:30 BST
- Location: remotely, via Zoom
Agendas will be accessible to Cohort participants in our Cohort Google Drive Folder; they are also an archive of our live google-docing. Please see https://openscapes.org/series to view blank versions of the agendas.
| Cohort Call Topics | Lesson Series Chapters | Seaside Chat Topics |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Openscapes mindset | mindset, better science for future us by Dr. Andy Barrett, NASA NSIDC | Seaside Chat (trailhead) |
| 2. GitHub for publishing & project management | publishing, project management | Seaside Chat (shared organizing with GitHub) |
| 3. Team culture and data strategies for future us | team culture, data strategies | Seaside Chat (team culture) |
| 4. Open communities and coding strategies for future us | open communities, FAIR strategies and EarthCODE (slides; recording) by Dr. Krasen Samardzhiev, Lampata | Seaside Chat (pathway) |
| 5. Pathways share and next steps | pathways |
Coworking times (optional)
Coworking sessions are where get our own work done at the same time together. Sometimes, this means quiet work with check-ins to break up focused work and get feedback, and sometimes this involves asking questions and screensharing to learn and problem solve. We will make breakout rooms so people working on related themes can meet and learn from each other.
- Dates: Thursdays biweekly, April 23, May 7, 21, June 4
- Times: 14:00 - 15:00 BST
- Location: remotely, via Zoom
Participating teams and individuals
Participants were mainly from key EarthCODE stakeholder groups: researchers in the Earth System Science Hub, ESA ɸ-Lab, and ESA Science Clusters, and many of them were in person together at ESRIN (ESA’s Centre for Earth Observation in Frascati, Italy). Other participants were from Europe, India, and Africa; they are scientists using ESA EO data in their research and who heard about the Champions Cohort via open science networks during the nomination period. These researchers study forests, clouds, sea ice, drought, cryosphere, wildfire, sea level rise, socio-ecological systems, extreme and compound event analysis. They use many different technologies for their science, including Python, GitHub, STAC APIs, Zenodo, data cubes, Overleaf, Jupyter Notebooks, HPCs, and were keen to learn more about how to collaborate, document, and improve their workflows.
Our Team
Julie Lowndes (@jules32), Openscapes
Stefanie Butland (@stefaniebutland), Openscapes
Ronny Hernandez Mora (@ronnyhdez), Openscapes
Dean Summers (@sunnydean), Lampata
Krasen Samardzhiev (@u3ks), Lampata
More about Openscapes and the Champions program:
- Our path to better science in less time using open data science tools (Lowndes et al. 2017) - This describes a marine science team’s transition to open collaborative teamwork. It was the original inspiration for creating the Champions Program and heavily influences the Core Lessons. We’ll ask that everyone participating reads it before our first Cohort Call.
- Supercharge your research: a ten-week plan for open data science (Lowndes et al. 2019) - This was co-authored with the inaugural Champions Cohort, capturing the most valuable take-aways for marine and environmental science early career faculty.
- Shifting institutional culture to develop climate solutions with Open Science (Lowndes et al. 2024) - This was co-authored by Openscapes mentors across organizations – including NASA Earthdata, NOAA Fisheries, EPA, California Water Boards, Pathways to Open Science, Fred Hutch Cancer Center.