The European Contribution to EARTHTIME: Structure and Links

The European Initiative links with the global EARTHTIME project (since 2003), which has a number of European contributors. On the European side, several strands are envisaged to support the overall objective of developing a 21st century highly accurate and stable Geological Time Scale:

1. 1)A first step was made by hosting an ESF sponsored Exploratory Workshop in April 2007 in Amsterdam.
   

2. 2)This workshop resulted in the submission of a proposal for an ITN, ‘GTSnext’, to the EU 7th Framework Program in September 2007. This is currently in under evaluation (Stage 2).
   

3. 3)In addition, an ESF Research Network Programme proposal ‘EARTHTIME-EU’ will be submitted to the ESF-RNP call of October 2007.
   

The network will complement the EARTHTIME initiative that is funded by the National Science Foundation, USA, and closely link with the wider Earth Science Community, the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) community, and industry. Scientists from other countries will participate sponsored by their national funding agencies respectively in Canada, Australia and China.