One of the things NSF Unidata Program Center staff members do is participate in scientific, technical, and community meetings. The insights we gain by interacting with others at meetings of groups like the American Meteorological Society (AMS), the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the Scientific Python community (SciPy), Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) or the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) keep us informed about issues and new developments and help us choose how to spend our efforts for the benefit of the Unidata community.

Here, Ethan Davis highlights some of the things that caught his attention at the 2025 Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) meeting in January.

In case you missed it — here's a recap of news from the NSF Unidata Program Center for the month of March, 2025.

The NSF Unidata Users Committee is seeking nominations for a Graduate Student representative to join the group of university faculty members who serve on this committee. Nominees should be Graduate Students who use NSF Unidata software, hold a strong interest in the NSF Unidata program, and have an interest in learning how a community-based program like NSF Unidata is governed. Nominations may be made by any community member, and self-nominations are acceptable. This position will be for a two-year term beginning with the fall 2025 Users Committee meeting.

NSF Unidata is governed by its community. Our Strategic Advisory and Users committees facilitate consensus-building for future directions of the NSF Unidata Program and establish standards of involvement for the community. Direct involvement in the Program by the academic community helps NSF Unidata stay on top of trends in Earth Systems Science education and research; for example, recent initiatives on Python and cloud-based computing have benefited tremendously from committee advice and involvement.

We are looking for several creative people at U.S. universities and colleges who are using NSF Unidata products and services — or who are familiar with NSF Unidata — to help guide the program in addressing the needs of our growing community. Nominate someone (even yourself) to join NSF Unidata's governing committees today!

The NSF Unidata Program Center is pleased to announce the opening of the 2025 NSF Unidata Community Equipment Awards solicitation. Created under the sponsorship of the U.S. National Science Foundation, NSF Unidata equipment awards are intended to encourage new members from diverse disciplinary backgrounds in the Earth Systems Sciences to join the NSF Unidata community, and to encourage existing members to continue their active participation, enhancing the community process. For 2025, a total of $100,000 is available for awards; proposals for amounts up to $20,000 will be considered.

The deadline for 2025 Community Equipment Awards proposals has been extended until April 7, 2025.