Join us to do better science in less time, together
This is a professional development and leadership opportunity for people doing and supporting research using NASA Earthdata collected from suborbital sampling to explore open data science practices and make incremental and sustainable change, no matter where you are starting from. The 2026 NASA Suborbital Openscapes Champions Cohort will run in June 2026. We will meet as a Cohort via Zoom four times over one month.
Applications will open (linked here) April 22, 2026.
Openscapes is an approach and a movement that helps researchers find each other and feel empowered to conduct data-intensive science (Lowndes et al. 2019; Robinson and Lowndes 2022). Since 2019, Openscapes has mentored over 600 researchers at universities across the US and at NASA and NOAA, helping to shift institutional culture to develop climate solutions with open science (Lowndes et al. 2024).
NASA Earthdata has volumes of remote sensing data collected by platforms in space, air, water, and land. Substantial suborbital data is collected from airborne sampling via airplanes, ground networks, and field sampling on land, boats, and buoys.
Suborbital science teams are teams that create and use suborbital data via NASA programs like EVS-4. The science teams use suborbital data to ground-truth satellite data, as well as to conduct other awesome research like studying Arctic coastlines via the FORTE mission and glaciers and ice sheets via the Snow4Flow mission. Read about how Openscapes supports NASA suborbital science teams
Through the Champions Program, EVS-4 and SoAR teams will develop common skills for documenting workflows with NASA suborbital data (Documentation, Open Science Data Management Plans, GitHub, “Forking as a Worldview” mindset). Working together in the cohort will help to lower barriers for a better workflow documentation by developing shared skills and strengthened relationships.
Program details
Openscapes Champions is a remote-by-design mentorship program for researchers to explore open data science practices. Core lessons include open mindset, GitHub for publishing and project management, coding and data strategies, and team culture. To support EVS-4 teams, this cohort will also focus on documentation strategies for suborbital data.
The 2026 NASA Suborbital Openscapes Champions Cohort will run in June 2026. We will meet as a Cohort via Zoom four times over one month for 1.5 hours, on alternating Wednesdays or Thursdays. We propose the following three options:
- When:
- Wednesdays at 10-11:30 am PT Dates: June 3, 10, 17, 24
Who: Researchers (postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, principal investigators, other academic researchers) and people supporting research with NASA airborne and suborbital data. Preference will be given to EVS-4 and SoAR teams if we reach capacity.
Cost: Free. This opportunity is supported by NASA through a contract to Openscapes.
Expected time commitment: 2.5hrs/week for 1 month is an expected time commitment. This accounts for 1.5 hours/week of synchronous Zoom calls, and collaborating with your peers to strengthen shared workflows.
For more information about the Openscapes and our Champions Program, see “Openscapes as a mechanism for Crossing the Chasm between idea and adoption in science” (slides) and What to Expect. For stories from over 25 past Openscapes Champions Cohorts from NASA Earthdata, NOAA Fisheries, other government agencies and academic groups, please browse these blog posts.
Questions? Contact hello @ openscapes.org.
References
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Citation
@online{2026,
author = {, Openscapes and and NASA, Openscapes},
title = {NASA {Openscapes} {Champions} {Program,} {Spring} 2026},
date = {2026-06-03},
url = {https://www.openscapes.org/events/2026-06-03-suborbital-champions/},
langid = {en}
}