In February 2025, the UNESCO hosted UN Secretariat for the International Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development (IDSSD; 2024-2033) recognized DDE as a Programme of the Decade.

         DDE’s collaboration with the Zhejiang Lab of China to create GeoGPT is one of the deliverables foreseen as part of the DDE-IDSSD Program. Hence, DDE is delighted to congratulate Prof. Jian Wang and his GeoGPT team for making presentations and demonstrate the performance of GeoGPT at the “AI for Global Summit” in Geneva, Switzerland, from 8 to 11 July 2025.

DDE has been supportive of GeoGPT from its earliest stages in late 2023 and enabled demonstrations of GeoGPT at EGU 2024 (Vienna, Austria), JpGU 2024 (Chiba, Japan), IGC 37 (Busan, Korea) and GSA CONNECTS 2024 (USA). In March this year, DDE and the Zhejiang Lab signed an MoU (see: Memorandum of Understanding between Deep-time Digital Earth and Zhejiang Lab, Zhejiang Province, China.pdf) for continuing collaboration in the development of GeoGPT and similar AI based products and services. Soon after the signing of the MoU, GeoGPT was opened to users from all parts of the world on 28 April 2025 at the EGU 2025 held in Vienna, Austria. Several DDE scientists are in regular communication with the Zhejiang Lab team to explore bespoke chatbots for their own geological science sub-disciplines and/or research themes.

Expanding digital ecosystems and resources for geological data is fundamental to the mission and vision of DDE. Two of the DDE funded projects that began in 2021 have delivered tangible products: the first-ever 1:5 M digital geological map of the world and DDE geoscience information metadata standard (Edition 1.0–2023). The second phase of both these projects has been approved for funding by the 14^th session of the Executive Committee in August 2024 and are due to begin implementation soon.

The DDE Platform launched on 8 November 2022 at UNESCO, Paris, has been included in the UNESCO Compendium on Open Science Infrastructures.  The second phase of the DDE project on geoscience information metadata standards foresees collaboration with CODATA, a DDE partner, bringing in CODATA experience and knowledge to improve compliance of databases on the DDE Platform to FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) principles and guidelines.

At the DDE Open Science Forum co-organized by UNESCO, IUGS, IYBSSD and DDE on 9 November 2022 in UNESCO, Paris, DDE committed itself to support the implementation of UNESCO Open Science Recommendation adopted by the organization’s 193 Member States in 2021. In the same year UNESCO also adopted another Recommendation on AI Ethics. As DDE/Zhejiang Lab partnership progresses further DDE in collaboration with other UN and international organizations could explore opportunities for addressing issues at the interface between Open Science and AI Ethical perspectives and practices.

The implementation of DDE Programme during the IDSSD includes cutting-edge data driven research on important scientific themes, including global geological hydrogen, global groundwater resources, global extreme climatic events etc. The Programme also foresees significant commitment to individual and institutional strengthening of capacities for data driven research in Africa, SIDS and other sub-regions of the Global South. It is committed to enabling open, cost-free access to digital ecosystems and resources for users in all parts of the world, mitigating the impacts on research, education and knowledge sharing arising from the global digital divide.