The ICOS Science Conference, organised every second year by the ICOS community, is a global event open to scientists and other experts working in greenhouse gases and biogeochemical cycles. The conference was first held in 2014 to bring together students and researchers across the ICOS domains, to facilitate scientific discussions and showcase the research capabilities of ICOS scientists. Since then, the ICOS Science Conference has grown from strength to strength and has become an unmissable event in the global climate research calendar.
Here's a look back at key highlights from the past ICOS Science Conferences. The text excerpts below are from the news archive, with links to the original news items provided where available.
This story is part of a series created for the 10-year anniversary of ICOS, looking back at a decade of ICOS science and achievements. Read the rest of the stories here.
The first ICOS Science Conference 2014
The 1st ICOS Science Conference was organised in Brussels, Belgium from 23rd to 25th of September 2014 to provide an arena for environmental scientists to discuss timely topics on greenhouse gas research. It attracted close to 140 talks and poster presentations and over 200 registered participants.
The second ICOS Science Conference 2016
The 2nd ICOS Science Conference was held in Helsinki, Finland from 27th to 29th of September 2016. Over 250 scientists and exhibitors from all over the world attended the Conference held in Paasitorni congress centre in Helsinki. The conference included plenary talks as well as several parallel sessions and more than 140 posters around five conference themes.
- Read the full story: ICOS international conference on greenhouse gases and biogeochemical cycles took place in Helsinki (27 October 2016) https://www.icos-cp.eu/event/426
The third ICOS Science Conference 2018
The 3rd ICOS Science Conference gathered over 300 scientists and other stakeholders to the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague from 11th to 13th of September 2018. The theme of the conference was "Knowledge for shaping the future – understanding our Earths’ biogeochemical processes”. The conference gathered more than 300 participants from 30 different countries, including scientists from North America, Asia, Australia, Africa and of course from many European countries.
The #ICOScapes Photo Exhibition, which presents beautiful photographs of 12 ICOS stations and scientists working at the stations, was opened during the conference.
- Read the full story: Over 300 top scientists across the world discussed greenhouse gases in the ICOS Science Conference (18 September 2018) https://www.icos-cp.eu/event/493
The fourth ICOS Science Conference 2020
The 4th ICOS Science Conference was held online from 15th to Thursday 17th of September 2020. For the first time the 3-day conference was organised entirely virtually due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We created a special conference platform to facilitate networking and interaction between the speakers, poster presenters, vendors and participants.
The overall, overarching theme of the conference was "Knowledge for shaping the future – understanding the Earth's biogeochemical processes”. It attracted a record breaking 1040 registered participants from all around the world, and over 200 oral and poster presentations from leading scientists.
- Read the full story: ICOS Science Conference 2020 has concluded successfully (23 September 2020) https://www.icos-cp.eu/event/991
- Watch the highlights video from ICOS Science Conference 2020
The fifth ICOS Science Conference 2022
The 5th ICOS Science Conference was held in-person and virtually from 13th - 15th September 2022 in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and online. The overarching theme of the conference was "Tracking progress to carbon neutrality”. This year’s conference brought more than 400 scientists from 33 countries together to present and discuss the latest research on greenhouse gas science.
- Read the full story: See highlights from the ICOS Science Conference 2022 (29 November 2022) https://www.icos-cp.eu/event/1242
- Watch the highlights video from ICOS Science Conference 2022
The sixth ICOS Science Conference 2024
The 6th ICOS Science Conference was held in-person and virtually from 10th - 12th September 2024 in Versaille, France, and online. The overarching theme of the conference was "From GHG observations through science to services”. This year’s conference had over 400 presentations on the latest greenhouse gas science that brought together over 500 participants from 36 countries.
- Read the full story: Highlights of ICOS Science Conference 2024 (2 October 2024) https://www.icos-cp.eu/news-and-events/news/highlights-icos-science-conference-2024
- Watch the highlights video from ICOS Science Conference 2024
The seventh ICOS Science Conference 2026
The next ICOS Science Conference will be held from 15-17th September 2026 in Lund. The conference programme will include a wide variety of scientific as well as interdisciplinary sessions related to policy making, climate education and new instrument developments. Abstract submission will open in January 2026.
Stay up to date with abstract submission dates and other important deadlines by subscribing to the ICOS Science Conference newsletter here and following ICOS on social media.