The DDE Open Science Forum was held at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France, on November 9th. The forum is co-sponsored by UNESCO, the International Year of Basic Science for Sustainable Development (hereinafter referred to as IYBSSD), the International Union of Geological Sciences (hereinafter referred to as IUGS) and the DDE Big Science Program with the theme of the forum this year, "Deep-time Digital Earth: Connect the future with the past". More than 150 guests from 97 organizations and institutions of 40 countries and regions participated in the forum. Academician Wang Chengshan and Cheng Qiuming from CUGB delivered keynote speeches at the forum. Academician Zhou Chenghu of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Academician Wang Jian of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Yan Guangsheng, Director of the Command Center of Natural Resources Comprehensive Survey of China Geological Survey and 30 other members of the Chinese delegation attended the relevant activities.

Forum site

Academician Wang Chengshan, chairman of the Executive Committee of DDE, discussed the top-level conception and design of DDE from three aspects: community input, open geoscience knowledge and open scientific infrastructure. Academician Cheng Qiuming expounded the historical background and development trend of the birth of DDE program from the aspects of the characteristics of earth science data and the development frontier of data-driven earth science, which was unanimously recognized and praised by the participants.

Academician Wang Chengshan delivered a keynote speech

Academician Cheng Qiuming delivered a keynote speech

The forum features the following four topics: "Advancing the UNESCO Open Science Recommendations with FAIR Principles", "Earth Sciences Helping to Address Emerging New Global Environmental and Development Challenges", "DDE Platform: Infrastructure, Data Sharing and Data Science Tools" and "Earth Science Literacy: Improving the Public's Understanding of Earth Science and Its Social Relevance ". A total of 8 speakers, 6 commentators and 4 hosts of the conference made wonderful reports and comments on the background and promotion of open science initiative, geoscience value and public cognition, DDE programs and actions, which are widely concerned by the international scientific community.

Wang Chengshan and Dr Shamila Nair-Bedouelle, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences posed for photograph

A favorable platform for communication and interaction was built with more than expected results achieved, and the main achievements of the DDE Grand Science Program in the past three years systematically displayed through this forum. All these above indicated that the DDE Grand Science Program has been widely recognized by UNESCO and other international organizations, forming a multi-level and all-round international cooperation situation. Dr Shamila Nair-Bedouelle, Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), said that it is eagerly anticipated that DDE will contribute to the practice of UNESCO's open science recommendations through data-driven geoscience. Professor Michel Spiro, Chairman of the International Year of Basic Science (IYBSSD), expressed his excitement at the inclusion of this forum in the International Year of Basic Science series. Professor Jennifer McKinley, Chair of the DDE Management Board and member of the IUGS Executive Board, delivered the opening address at the forum and announced the first global launch of DDE Digitalized Global Public Infrastructure, Deep-time.org, at DDE's fifth Management Board.

The 5th Plenary meeting of the DDE Management Committee witnessed the global launch of the beta version of Deep-time.org

A series of activities were also held during the forum, including the DDE- International Geological Map Commission Exchange meeting, the DDE 2022 Symposium on Academic Progress and the first meeting of the Paleogeography Alliance. Academician Wang Chengshan and Cheng Qiuming and their delegation called on Minister Chen Dong of the Chinese Embassy to France and Ambassador Yang Jin of the Chinese Permanent Mission to UNESCO and attended the forum on Education and Science and Technology exchange and cooperation between China and France. The two sides reached broad consensus on further promoting the DDE Grand Science Program with UNESCO and signing the Memorandum of Cooperation and strengthening international academic Cooperation and exchanges of DDE