Near-Surface Geophysics Partnership Announcement
Posted Nov 10, 2026
Near-surface geophysics methods have broad applicability in a variety of geoscience and environmental disciplines such as hydrology, critical zone science, and engineering geology. Until now, though, there has not been a unified center to support research and education in near-surface geophysics. Five NSF-funded Earth science organizations involved in aspects of near-surface geophysics have entered a new partnership to centralize support; these organizations are the Center for Transformative Environmental Monitoring Programs (CTEMPs), Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI), the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI), OpenTopography, and the NSF National Geophysical Facility (NSF NGF operated by EarthScope).
The first activity taken together was the Near-surface Geophysics Community Input Workshop, bringing together a broad cross-section of the geoscience and near-surface geophysics community. Developed with input from the AGU Near-surface Geophysics Section and held in late August 2026 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the workshop, attended by CUAHSI staff Jordan Read, CEO, and Julia Masterman, Community Relations and Training Coordinator, aimed to fortify relationships, surface new collaborations, and build on prior community input.
Ninety-four attendees, ranging from academic faculty, researchers, and late-stage graduate students to industry professionals and federal employees, were tasked with assessing gaps, identifying complementary efforts, and considering how to coordinate opportunities among the partner organizations and the broader research and education communities. Across a day and a half of plenary talks and interactive breakout sessions, attendees identified high priority actions to increase collective impact.
A synthesis of workshop outcomes is now available, which drew from the community input to create a set of prioritized capabilities for partner organizations to follow. In the near term, the organizations will implement the partnership and virtual center governance structure and create an online landing page for sharing resources. Thereafter, the partners plan to work together to sponsor more community events, acquire additional instrumentation through current funds and new proposals, develop data tools and best practices, build a portfolio of multi-modal training programs, and create mechanisms for interdisciplinary networking and collaboration.