EGU Public Engagement Grants are awarded each year to Union members interested in developing an outreach project to raise awareness of the geosciences outside the scientific community. For 2025, the EGU Outreach Committee has named four €2000 grant winners. Spanning a range of topics from climate change and natural hazards to air and water quality, and using a range of innovative outreach formats to connect with their chosen audiences, the 2025 winners of the EGU Public Engagement Grants represent the enthusiasm that EGU members have for sharing these subjects with many different public audiences.

Victor Dzidefo Ablo, recipient of the Public Engagement Award for his project "Communities for Earth' said, "This project will engage, educate, and empower communities in Kalpohin and Savelugu, Northern Ghana, through participatory air quality monitoring to understand and tackle air pollution. By training residents to democratize air quality monitoring and meaningfully communicating the reported data, this initiative will empower residents to co-create locally driven clean air solutions supported by accessible, multilingual educational materials." The geography teacher from Salvation Army Senior High School, Akim Oda, Ghana, and the lead for Clean Air One Atmosphere, a non-profit organisation added, "I am thrilled and deeply grateful to receive this award from EGU. It’s a rare opportunity, and my team and I, cannot wait to work with the communities in Kalpohin and Savelugu to take the lead on tackling air pollution, the silent killer—with domain-specific evidence and co-designed solutions."

Also funded is the project ‘Playback to the future’. “Playback to the Future is an educational card game that engages older adults in community centers, care homes, and lifelong learning programs, encouraging critical thinking through environmental hazard scenarios that call for either nature-based or grey infrastructure solutions. The game features cards inspired by satellite data to simulate Earth observation insights that influence decision-making strategies, while participants co-create 'Memory Cards' based on their local experiences and traditional knowledge”, says Noemi Mannucci, a PhD candidate in Earth Observation at Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy and the project creator. She adds, “I’m honoured and excited to receive the EGU Public Engagement Grant — all of these projects contribute to leaving the world a little better than we found it. I’m happy to do my part by giving space to voices often left out of science communication, and by turning local memory into a tool for future resilience."

In addition EGU has funded the project ‘Advancing Quality Awareness in Subsurface Management and Real-time Monitoring Technology’. "AQUASMART Mini is an interactive, sensor-based miniature aquifer and farm system that simulates key groundwater processes such as infiltration, recharge, flow, pumping, and contaminant transport to illustrate their connection to sustainable agriculture. It features low-cost sensors that measure groundwater depth, pH, electrical conductivity, and salinity, which will transmit real-time data to a web-based dashboard where users can visualize and interact with how farming practices influence aquifer conditions and water quality." explains project lead and Assistant Professor in Land and Water Resources Engineering at University of the Philippines, Los Baños, Philippines, Leunell Chris M. Buela. “I am excited to kick-start the project and see how the model will help advance public understanding of sustainable water management. As someone who learns by example, I see this grant as a vital tool to encourage more Filipino youth to be involved in agriculture and water resources engineering and to learn through the integration of IoT devices and numerical models in their learning program. I am optimistic that the project will provide a transformative learning experience among different sectors.”

The grants are for a period of approximately 12 months and will be awarded this month. The winners will be invited to present their public-engagement work at a future EGU General Assembly and to participate in EGU educational and outreach activities in Vienna. They are also invited to submit a paper about their work to the journal Geoscience Communication.

• EGU Public Engagement Grants