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

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.

Current/upcoming tasks

Building the session programme

The EGU General Assembly session programme is organized into several Programme Groups and their respective sessions. The session programme is built in three steps following the timing in the deadline and milestones table.

  • Call-for-skeleton programme: the PG chairs are asked to implement sub-Programme Groups in their respective PG to guide session submission. The sub-Programme Groups can be adjusted during the later phase of session programme finalization.
  • Public call-for-session proposals: the public is invited to suggest sessions. Information for future conveners and guidelines for the call-for-session can be found in the Conveners guidelines and rules.
  • Session programme finalization: the PG chairs and their science officers are asked to compile their session programme from suggested sessions. They can solicit late sessions to fill possible thematic gaps in the programme.

Skeleton programme

The call-for-skeleton programme tool is available via the Copernicus Office dashboard for PC members called "PC Overview", and the corresponding links will be provided by email. In this phase, PG chairs are asked to define sub-Programme Groups.

Public call-for-session

Guidelines for session proposal can be found in the convener guidelines and rules. Please read them carefully.

In addition, we note the following:

  • Session title and description: conveners are only able to change the title and description of their sessions during the call-for-session and during the Session Organization stages (tools SOI and SOII). If there is an urgent need for change outside these phases, conveners must directly ask their PG chairs or science officers to implement the requested changes. This can be done in the list of sessions of the PC Overview.
  • Cooperation between PGs: conveners can suggest other PGs for co-organization. The PG chair follows up on these suggestions during session programme finalization.
  • Session co-sponsoring: conveners can suggest co-sponsoring of their session by colleague scientific organizations. The co-sponsorship's status should be given as proposed or approved by the colleague organization. The PG chair follows up on these suggestions during session programme finalization.

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.

Public call-for-abstracts

The call-for-abstracts for EGU24 opens on 1 November 2023 and has a deadline on 10 January 2024, 13:00 CET. Please assist your conveners during the call-for-abstracts by, for example, advertising the entire session programme in your Programme Group.

During this phase, conveners can solicit one presentation for their session. To this purpose, each session can generate one transaction number (TAN) in their session modification tool to provide to the author submitting the solicited presentation. In addition, each PG chair has a limited number of extra TAN that they can assign to sessions to allow an additional solicited abstract (e.g. if the PG chair and conveners expect that the session will run for more than one time block). These extra TANs are provided by the Programme Committee Co-chairs. Solicited presenters do not automatically obtain discounts or waivers on the abstract processing charges or the registration fee. If eligible, they can apply to EGU participation support schemes when applications are open during the call-for-abstracts.

Additional information can be found in the convener guidelines and rules.