The second GEORGE Technical Forum was successfully organised at the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) in Ostend, Belgium, from 6 to 10 October 2025. The training event brought together 32 participants and 11 sensor experts from 11 countries, representing a wide variety of backgrounds.
The participants, affiliated with the three Research Infrastructures involved in GEORGE, Euro-Argo, EMSO and ICOS, came from a wide variety of backgrounds, representing engineers, lab and station technicians, postdocs and researchers.
The purpose of the training was to enable future users of GEORGE technologies to receive training in the new sensor and sampler technologies currently being developed in the project. This knowledge can be used in the future to answer central questions in marine carbon chemistry, from understanding carbon fluxes and ocean alkalinity to marine carbon dioxide removal strategies.
For the technology developers – ClearWater Sensors, 4H Jena, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, National Oceanography Centre and University of Exeter – the training provided an excellent opportunity to receive first-hand feedback and questions from future users. The small-group format encouraged close interaction between participants and experts.
On top of the on-site training, GEORGE is actively developing an innovative online training platform, which will include text and video-based training materials, how-to-guides and instruction manuals. The technology developers that participated in the training will all be contributing materials for the platform.
The third and final GEORGE Technical Forum will be organised in 2026. The call for applications will be announced on the GEORGE channels in the spring of 2026.
More photographs from the training will be published on our website soon – follow GEORGE on LinkedIn, BlueSky and X to hear more updates!