Dear colleague,

Research Data Alliance is a global community-driven organisation launched and supported by the European Commission ,  National Science Foundation (USA) and  partners from other regions of the world. RDA has the goal of building the social and technical infrastructure to enable open sharing of research data across geographical boundaries and disciplines.

Geospatial IG of the Research Data Alliance is an excellent global platform to expand ideas for Geospatial Data Science and its importance for both research ( geodata driven discovery,  geospatial data harmonisation, geostatistical  modelling, techniques for integrating both authoritative and crowd sourced data etc) and teaching (the curriculum requirements for teaching geospatial data driven discovery for future geoprofessionals). Since the start of establishing Geospatial  IG, we have  provided opportunity for bringing for all interested in 'geo' data aspects in RDA and outside for expanding ideas and synergies. 

I am very grateful for the opportunity to serve as the founding chair of this IG and work with amazing colleagues to expand ideas for Geospatial data science. As i am now busy with many other key responsibilities (board positions etc) ,  I have decided to hand over the IG leadership  to qualified colleagues who can invest time to take this forward. We are looking for colleagues who have strong research leadership in Geospatial Data Science for this.  I will provide my full support to whoever the community decide to select for the new Chair.  All interested please send your details to the Geospatial IG mailing list and I leave to the community to decide . 

The Geospatial IG will be meeting at Berlin to keep building ideas for the global research agenda for Geospatial Data Science . The draft agenda for Geospatial IG meeting in Berlin is available at 
https://rd-alliance.org/ig-geospatial-rda-11th-plenary-meeting     

Best wishes,

Suchith