EGU24 - Programme Committee guidelines

Structure of the Programme Committee

The EGU Programme Committee (PC) has the following members:

EGU PC Co-chairs;
EGU President, EGU Vice-President, EGU General Secretary, EGU Treasurer, EGU Executive Secretary, EGU Events Co-ordinator;
Copernicus Meetings Conference Managers;
Programme Group (PG) chairs;
PC Officers and Coordinators.

Each Programme Group (PG) includes the following:

PG Chair;
PG science officers;
PG conveners, authors, and participants.

The PG chair is responsible for the organization of their PG programme at the General Assembly.

The Programme Committee members should comply to the EGU General Assembly rules of conduct.

This page contains information to help members of the EGU Programme Committee during the various stages of building the programme for the General Assembly.

Useful links

Current/upcoming tasks

PCIII – presentation sequencing

Within the PCIII tool, PG chairs are asked to finalize the SOIII tool for their Programme Group. In particular, they should finalize the sessions that are still open and were not finalized by the conveners in guidelines for SOIII. They should follow the guidelines for SOIII that are presented in the convener guidelines.

Final check

Programme Group chairs should make sure that their programme is correctly scheduled, including division medal and award lectures, as well as Arne Richter outstanding ECS award lecture, when relevant. Each session block (oral, poster, and PICO blocks) needs at least two chairpersons assigned.

Letter of schedule

After all Programme Groups have finalized PCIII, Copernicus Meetings assign poster areas and generate the meeting programme, which includes all PG programmes. Once the programme is finalized, all abstracts receive their final scheduling and the authors are informed about the details of their presentation by a letter of schedule.

Before and at the conference, usage of the PG mail tool

PG chairs can communicate with conveners and authors of the sessions in their PG at all steps of session and programme organization, as well as during the General Assembly, through the PG mail tool. It is possible to contact:

all conveners (including co-conveners) of all sessions or only conveners (including co-conveners) of selected sessions of your PG,
all contact authors of all sessions of your PG,
all authors (including contact and co-authors) of all sessions of your PG,
all authors (including contact and co-authors) of ECS abstracts.

In order to contact authors of a specific session, it is necessary to log in to the session modification of the respective session.

Please ensure to use respectful and gender neutral language in all communications, and also encourage conveners to do so.

Also, note that the mail tool generates a no-reply email. If further contact is needed, it is necessary to clearly inform a relevant email address in the text of the message.

Previous tools/tasks

Building the session programme

Public call-for-session

Skeleton programme

Session programme finalization

After the open call-for-session proposals, PG chairs and their science officers are asked to finalize their session programme. Please pay specific attention to the following points:

Finalization: after the finalization of this tool, further changes can only be implemented by Copernicus Meetings. The recommendation is not to finalize until the autumn PC meeting.
Permissions: science officers serving as sub-Programme Group chairs can only see and modify sessions and session proposals of their sub-Programme Group(s) and adjust the respective sequence. The entire list of sessions and session proposals of all sub-Programme Groups is only available for PG chairs.
Ordering of sessions: all sessions in the programme can be moved to any position in your programme, including the positioning into sub-Programme Groups. This is simply done by drag-and-drop.
Session numbering: the session numbers will be assigned automatically upon finalization of the tool based on (a) the affiliation of sessions to sub-Programme Groups of their leading PG and (b) the sequence of sessions within their sub-Programme Groups. Thereby, the session number contains a running number within the sub-Programme Group of the leading PG (e.g. BG6.4) as well as ITS (e.g. ITS3.6/NH2.3), whereas PGs serving as co-organization partners will not be assigned a running number (e.g. CL7.8, co-organized by AS5).
New sessions: the PG chair and officers can upload new session proposals to fill thematic gaps in the session programme that they build from the public session proposals.
Session implementation: please carefully check conveners team diversity, and session co-organization and co-sponsoring requests (see below).
Conveners: check that conveners follow the Conveners guidelines and rules. The tool might alert you and prevent finalization if rules are violated.
Session similarity: if a significant number of keywords or part of the session title and description is similar for two or more sessions, these sessions are listed as potentially similar, with the option to contact the involved parties to agree on a merger. Please carefully check the section headlined "session similarity" to identify sessions with a potential overlap in topics. Session mergers are possible within and between PGs. It is strongly encouraged to build sessions that are distinct and/or complementary. The presence of too similar sessions is confusing for participants when submitting their abstract or organizing their personal programme.
Implementation of co-organization: if two or more PGs have a significant and active interest in the topics of a session, these PGs can co-organize this session. It is implied that conveners with a link to the different PGs are involved in the session. Session co-organization is initiated by conveners. Their suggestions for co-organization are listed in the implementation form. The PG chair that is leading the session sends co-organization requests to other PG chairs. In the case of acceptance, the session is listed in the programmes of the PGs involved in the co-organization. The leading PG will take primary responsibility for scheduling the session. Union Symposia and Great Debates cannot be co-organized.
Implementation of co-sponsoring by colleague organizations: Conveners can suggest co-sponsoring during session submission and these suggestions are shown in the session implementation form. The decision for session co-sponsoring lies with the PG chair. Please check the following: (i) co-sponsoring is reciprocal, involving sessions at meetings of both partners, (ii) the session has conveners from both organizations, (iii) the colleague organization agrees to session co-sponsoring, and (iv) session co-sponsoring is intended for colleague scientific organizations and does not imply funding. A co-sponsoring organization should not influence the work of the conveners or the content of the session.
Inter- and Transdisciplinary Sessions (ITS): session proposals with a truly inter- and/or transdisciplinary scope might have been suggested to the ITS programme (read carefully the ITS guidelines). ITS sessions are organized by the ITS PG chair, in agreement with a disciplinary associated leading PG (co-organization with other PGs is also possible). In the session programme finalization form, the eligibility of the ITS session proposals have to be evaluated by both the ITS chair and the associated leading PG chair before implementation in the programme. If both parties deny the eligibility of the proposal for the ITS programme, the session proposal is moved to the leading PG for further handling (implementation as a PG session, rejection of the proposal, or merger with another similar session already proposed in the PG). If the ITS chair and the leading PG chair disagree on the eligibility of the proposal, they must refer to the Programme Committee Co-chairs for a final decision.

PC support ranking (PCSR)

PCII – scheduling

Within the PCII tool, you are asked to schedule the sessions led by their PG by assigning rooms and time blocks to the sessions. Later, in session organization phase III (SOIII), conveners will use the PCII results to implement their sequence of presentations, according to the meeting format of the General Assembly.

When scheduling, PG chairs should pay attention to time conflicts and to conveners' requests. Requests from conveners (done during SOII) are available for download in the PCII tool.

PG chairs should carefully read the guidelines for scheduling that will be provided with the scheduling information email. They should not finalize PCII until the February PC meeting.

Clusters

The allocation of rooms for sessions is done by the PC Co-chairs and by clusters. There are 6 single-PG clusters (AS, BG, CL, HS, NH, SSS divisions) and 6 clusters with 2 or 4 PGs each. Please negotiate rooms with your cluster colleagues before you place sessions in the system.

Scheduling orals

Oral sessions are time blocks of 1 hour and 45 minutes.
Oral presentations can be scheduled in slots of 10 minutes, including change-over times and questions. Solicited presentations can be attributed to a 10-minute, a 20-minute, or a 30-minute slot, as preferred by the conveners' team.
It is possible to schedule presentations for less than the total time of an oral block, with the remainder set aside for discussion, for instance. It is also possible to include a slot of 5 minutes for an introduction to be given by conveners. This is done by using the subtitle option of the tool.
PG chairs should pay attention to the fact that one oral block can only accommodate a maximum of 10 (either on-site or virtual) regular presentations.
Oral sessions can only be scheduled in the rooms and time blocks that were assigned to each cluster.
It is possible to trade time blocks and rooms among clusters within the PCII tool, but please make sure that all involved PGs agree upon that.

Scheduling PICO

PICO sessions are time blocks of 1 hour and 45 minutes.
PICO spots have a maximum of 15 screens on-site for individual PICO presentations.
One PICO session should be composed of a maximum of 15 on-site presentations (number of PICO screens available) and a maximum of 5 virtual presentations, never exceeding 15 on-site presentations or 20 presentations in total.
PG chairs can schedule PICO sessions in PICO spots and time blocks assigned to their cluster.
It is also possible to trade PICO spots/time blocks among clusters within the PCII tool.

Scheduling posters

On-site poster sessions take place in the morning or afternoon of the conference day, the display time spanning two consecutive time blocks (TB1–TB2 or TB3–TB4). The second time block of the morning or afternoon (TB2 or TB4) is the designated attendance time, when the author is expected to present their poster.
Programme Group chairs should schedule poster sessions in a way that posters are equally distributed over the week, and equally distributed between the morning and afternoon of a given day.
They should pay attention to avoid overlapping poster sessions with their corresponding oral sessions.
Poster locations (including halls) will be assigned after the PCII tool. Thematically related PGs are kept close together, when possible.
Virtual poster sessions will be scheduled automatically during time block 3 (TB3), during which no on-site poster attendance will be scheduled.

Solicited talks

Conveners will set the status of solicited presentation (oral, PICO, or poster) in their session in SOIII. Convener guidelines recommend one solicited abstract per session or time block. Solicited oral presentations can be attributed to a 10-minute, a 20-minute, or a 30-minute slot, as preferred by the conveners’ team. Additional information on solicited talks is provided in the convener guidelines.

Medal and Award lectures

Division medal lectures, Arne Richter Award for Outstanding ECS lectures, and Division Outstanding ECS lectures are to be organized by the PG chairs and Division Presidents. It is recommended the following:

Division medal lectures should be scheduled for 30 or 60 minutes, preferentially at lunch or evening slots to avoid overlapping with scientific sessions.
Arne Richter Award for Outstanding ECS lectures and Division Outstanding ECS lectures should be scheduled for 15 or 30 minutes. They can be scheduled together with the division medal lectures (e.g., one after the other in a 60-minute session) or within a chosen oral session of the PG programme (after agreement with the conveners of the session).

In all cases, PG chairs/Division Presidents should communicate and agree with medallists and awardees before scheduling the lectures. The date and time of these lectures should be communicated to general-assembly@egu.eu to be displayed in the PG programme.

PCI – abstract implementation & session tagging

Convener tool SOI for abstract implementation: in session organization phase I (SOI), conveners review abstracts in their session. They can transfer abstracts to another session or upload late abstracts. They can also discuss session merging with the PG chairs and PG scientific officers, and proceed with merging when needed. Session mergers are possible within and between programme groups.
Session threshold: sessions with a small number of abstracts (5 or less) will be cancelled. Authors are informed and asked to indicate a new session for their abstract.
Convener tool SOII for session tagging: during session organization phase II (SOII), conveners provide information on no-overlap and back-to-back requests, among others, as well as on estimated desired room size.
Finalize SOI and SOII if not finished by session conveners: after the conveners' deadlines for SOI and SOII have expired, the PG Chair will be asked to finalize the SOI and SOII tools for their PG sessions that are still open (i.e. conveners have not finished). Detailed instructions are provided within the PCI tool.
Session similarity: if a significant number of keywords or words in a session's title and description are similar with one or more sessions, these sessions are listed as potentially similar, with the option to contact the conveners to eventually agree on a merger. Please carefully check these sessions that are flagged as similar, and make sure that they are distinct and/or complementary.
Session mergers: sessions that received few submissions (but were not cancelled) have to be merged. Sessions that are very similar in scope can also be merged for a more coherent programme. Conveners and PG Chairs can merge sessions in SOI. It is advised that once a merger is decided, authors are informed by conveners and given time to eventually request a transfer of their abstract to a different session. Then, the procedure for finalizing the merger of sessions is as follows:

Discuss which session will form the basis for the new session.
Update the title, abstract, and list of conveners of this base session.
Mark all abstracts in the other session for transfer into the new (base) session.
Accept all those abstracts in the new base session. The result is that the base session for the merger now contains the abstracts of both sessions, while the other session contains no abstracts and can then be withdrawn (i.e. removed/cancelled).

It is recommended that the convener list, session title, and description are adapted in the case of a session merger. This is to guarantee the best representation of the ideas, topics, and targeted communities of all sessions involved in the merging. The session's title and description can be adjusted by the main convener or any of the co-conveners of the new (base) session through the session modification tool. The list of co-conveners, however, can only be adjusted by the main convener of the new (base) session. We recommend keeping the number of conveners at a maximum of 5 conveners (at least two active conveners, 1 convener and 1 co-convener). However, if justified, merged sessions can have a maximum of 7 conveners (1 main convener and 6 co-conveners).

Rejected abstracts: in the PCI tool, PG chairs are asked to review the abstracts rejected by a convener for possible acceptance in another session or PG. Please carefully check these abstracts.
Similar abstracts: PG chairs are also asked to check those abstracts in which an analysis found substantial similarities to other submissions. Double submissions should be withdrawn.
Abstract acceptance: as part of the PCI tool, authors are informed about the acceptance (or not) of their contribution by a letter of acceptance. This letter does not yet state the form of presentation nor inform about scheduling issues.