The EGU (European Geoscience Union) is inviting applications for its new Distinguished Lectures for Universities series with financial support of up to €1400. Applicants are invited to request a lecture to be hosted at their higher education institution from a select group of distinguished scientists to speak on subjects in the Earth, planetary and space sciences. The series, an initiative of the EGU Education Committee, is available to support two successful applicants. The deadline for applications is 30 June 2024.

All of the scientific speakers available to speak as part of the Distinguished Lectures Series have previously worked with the Education Committee in the EGU General Assembly Geoscience Information For Teachers (GIFT) Workshop. Applicants are asked to select a speaker from the list of speakers who participated in the last five years of the EGU General Assembly GIFT Workshops; from 2018 onwards. Find out more about the speakers, their expertise, and their lectures at the General Assembly GIFT workshops in this document or on the EGU GIFT website.

Institutions can collaborate together in a group application, or submit an application independently. Only one application per institution is supported, either singly or in a group. The lectures do not need to be limited to a specific student group or class. Applications are only open to institutions within Europe. The Education Committee particularly welcomes applications from institutions based outside of capital cities or from under-served regions or countries. Lectures are only available in English unless the speaker is comfortable, and agrees to delivering the talk in another language. EGU encourages applicants to arrange lectures in a hybrid format, with both in-person and virtual components.

Support will be provided by EGU, who will liaise between the successful applicants and their selected speaker as well as cover the travel and subsistence costs of the speaker. The applicants should include a list of proposed dates for the lectures in their application document. The availability of the selected speaker cannot be guaranteed; therefore applications can include a second choice speaker, in the case of limited availability. The proposal document included as part of an application should: articulate the purpose and reasoning for behind speaker selection; indicate how the lecture aligns with the institution/s educational goals and curriculum; and outline what measures will be taken to maximise the lecture’s outreach potential.

Applications must be written in English and include the criteria given above for proposals. The application must contain the following documents:

• a proposal (no more than 2 pages): the selection of a first and second choice of speakers, the proposed dates, and information which addresses the criteria given above.
• an official letter from the applicant’s organisation approving the speaker invitation.

To apply, interested applicants must fill in the online form, where applicants can upload the PDF files for the documents described above, by 30 June 2024. Submissions by this deadline will be evaluated by members of the Education Committee.