EC Chair's message to the DDE Community
Dear Colleagues, partners, and friends of the Deep-time Digital Earth (DDE) community,
It is my pleasure to take the liberty of sending you this letter of greetings. It is my great honor and privilege to assume the role of Chair of the DDE Executive Committee from April of 2025, following the recent election conducted by the DDE Governing Council (GC). I extend my deepest gratitude to our past Chairs and all those who have worked tirelessly to lay a strong foundation for the DDE program. Your efforts have enabled DDE to become a unique and powerful global initiative that bridges deep-time geoscience and digital innovation. As the founder who initiated this program during my presidency at the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) from 2016 to 2020, I extend my heartfelt gratitude for your trust and support in entrusting me with this distinguished position.
The Deep-time Digital Earth (DDE) program, launched as an international big science initiative, has reached a pivotal stage in its development. While we have achieved significant milestones, several critical challenges remain that require our collective and resolute efforts.
Institutional Development:
DDE currently lacks clear international legal status as an independent entity. This fundamental issue has constrained our decision-making efficiency and affected the program's long-term stability. As a large-scale scientific initiative, it is imperative that we establish a modern governance system that aligns with our ambitions.
Scientific Innovation:
The Deep-time Digital Earth (DDE) program has established transformative goals to advance Earth sciences, including harmonizing global Earth evolution data, constructing an open geoscientific knowledge system, developing open-source scientific public goods, driving fundamental discoveries in Earth system science, supporting sustainable development applications, and pioneering new research paradigms and open science.
However, challenges have emerged during implementation. The integration of technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) remains uneven across geoscience disciplines, due to factors such as data scarcity, computational demands, and the opaque nature of AI models. Collaboration between AI experts and geoscientists also requires enhancement to deepen interdisciplinary synergy.
Sustainable Development:
While we are profoundly grateful for the longstanding and substantial support from Chinese funders, other sources of funding are insufficient to meet the program's development needs. Therefore, establishing diversified international funding channels is imperative.
Global Participation:
Although more than two dozen international academic institutions have joined DDE, the depth and breadth of engagement remain insufficient, particularly regarding the participation of female and young scientists. Furthermore, the global early-career researcher training system requires significant improvement.
To address these challenges, I propose the following prioritized initiatives:
1. Clarify DDE's International Legal Status and Enhance Governance Structure:
Expedite the establishment of DDE's legal identity to improve decision-making efficiency and ensure long-term stability.
2. Establish Unified Data Standards and Sharing Mechanisms:
Develop standardized protocols to accelerate the creation and dissemination of knowledge products.
3. Form a Finance Committee to Diversify Funding Sources:
Create a dedicated committee to explore and secure varied international funding avenues.
4. Enhance Management Transparency and Optimize Decision-Making Processes:
Implement measures to increase transparency and credibility within our management practices.
5. Strengthen International Outreach:
Intensify efforts to attract outstanding research teams, with a focus on inclusivity and engagement of underrepresented groups.
The path of reform will undoubtedly present challenges. However, I firmly believe that through our collective efforts, we can overcome these obstacles and fulfill DDE's original mission to revolutionize Earth science and support sustainable development.
Let us join hands to open a new chapter in DDE's development.
Sincerely,
Qiuming
Prof. Qiuming Cheng elected as the Chair of DDE Executive Committee for 2025-2029