On November 15th, 2022, following the break due to the pandemic, a meeting titled “Reflections and perspectives for the Trails of the LTER Italy Network” was held in Rome. The meeting aimed to take a break and reflect on Trails’ significance for LTER-Italy and for those who have participated in their co-creation process, and also to imagine the future of this initiative.
All those who took part in the creation, design, organisation, and implementation of the Trails were invited to the meeting, and 32 people from 11 different institutions attended the event in Rome.
The first part of the meeting was dedicated to retracing the history and results of the Trails and to discussing science communication – what it is and why it has become increasingly important for research – and how the Trails fit into the broader landscape of diversified communication initiatives. In the second part of the meeting, targeted workshops were held to share considerations and reflections on the experiences lived in the Trails and to assess together if and how the Trails initiative could continue and with what prospects and purposes.
The results of the meeting were published on Zenodo, in the LTER-Italy community.