The science rationale behind the creation of GERI, published in April 2022 in the journal Earth’s Future, emphasizes the need to collaboratively address global grand challenges that cannot be dealt with by any single Research Infrastructure (RI). Bringing together existing RIs that have achieved a strong scientific position on their respective continent will enable researchers around the world to tackle the programmatic work required by the current and future grand challenges. By federating capabilities, harmonizing ecosystem data and reducing uncertainties, GERI will enable broader cross-continental ecological research.

The overarching scientific philosophy and mandate of each individual member RI is the product of extensive community (bottom-up) and top-down input and reflects the respective geopolitical characteristics. Comprehensive datasets from each RI are focused on ecosystem science, population and community
ecology, and biodiversity.

The collaboration in GERI will allow scientists to:

fully analyse and understand complex ecological teleconnections – the interactions of ecological services related to each other over large distances, evident beyond ecosystem and regional scales. A common example is how El Niño oscillations influence climate patterns across large regions of the earth, and in turn, affect ecological processes;

integrate the human and ecological dimensions needed to understand the socio-ecological feedbacks that will ultimately affect global societal well-being and development;

further develop a clearer understanding of the ecological processes and deliver the statistical data volumes for more accurate near term ecological forecasting capabilities;

bring together ‘big data’, AI and machine learning, scientific and societal imperatives to implement (and learn from) scientific interoperability across global ecosystem observations.

The capabilities of GERI are essential to better address critical challenges associated with the sustainable management of our limited natural capital under a changing change. They will be all the more crucial for future, yet unknown, environmental challenges, to assure long-term human well-being on the planet.