EGU2026, which took place in Vienna (Austria) on 4-8 May 2026, was another success for the scientific drilling community with many events organised during the 5-day conference. As in previous years, ECORD has joined its effort with ICDP for a joint booth presenting and promoting the various activities of the two drilling programmes.
The traditional ECORD-ICDP Townhall Meeting happened this year on the first day of the EGU conference on the 4th of May and was held for the first time at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Talks by Christian Koeberl (University of Vienna, Austria) and Michael Strasser (University of Innsbruck, Austria) on the important role and place of Austria in both continental and scientific drilling, then by Nadine Hallmann (ECORD) and Marco Bohnhoff (ICDP), on recent ECORD/IODP3 and ICDP outcomes and future activities were the highlights of the evening. Between 150 and 200 attendees then gathered for discussion and networking around food and drinks to conclude a very successful Townhall Meeting.
The following day, the “Achievements and perspectives in scientific ocean and continental drilling” session, convened by Matt O’Regan (ESSAC Chair, Stockholm University, Sweden), gathered dozens of scientists to listen to presentations on ocean and continental drilling outcomes in a fully packed room. Poster presentations completed the session.
In addition to these two events, activities at the booth punctuated the week with, this year, two presentations by Antony Morris (Lead Director of IODP3) on the SPARC initiative using legacy materials (core and data) from core repositories. Twice that week, the conference attendees had also the opportunity to watch a short documentary, “A story of stress”, showing offshore experience and operations during IODP Expedition 405 in the Japan Trench.
We look forward to seeing many of you at EGU2027!
The Scientific Ocean Drilling Booth Team – EGU 2026
