JGU Mainz hosts the SEACHANGE annual meeting 2025
This year, it was the turn of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz to host the SEACHANGE annual meeting. Bernd and the team did a fantastic job at organising the venue, booking everyone into the Wasem Kloster Engelthal on the outskirts Ingelheim. This beautiful location set amongst the vineyards was originally a monastery, first founded at the start of the 13th century. This picturesque setting coupled with the hot mid-summer weather was the perfect place for the SEACHANGE team to meet and discuss recent developments within the project. 
The meeting was structured in the same as previous meetings with members of each work package presenting their research updates and results. There were many interesting presentations highlighting the huge amount of progress being made within the project. A particularly exciting event was the premier of a short film which details the recent fieldwork and research in Brazil being undertaken in work package 3 (Click here to view).
The presentations and updates generated many points of discussion which were the subject of specific break out groups organised on the 2nd and 3rd day of the meeting. These groups, and the meeting in general, were invaluable at providing focus to each area of research within the project, as well as enabling the pulling together of research strands in order the answer the bigger SEACHANGE questions. Due to the sweltering weather, these working group dialogues often took place outside, in the shady grounds of the Kloster.
The third day of the meeting was dedicated to reviewing the publications and outputs of the project. The impressive list of publications being generated from each work package (with many more still to come) showed that the project is well on the way to delivering its aims. Attention was also given to the best way to publicise the outputs of SEACHANGE, in order for the research to have maximum impact on future environmental policy.
As ever, work conversations often continued into the evening over dinner and drinks, enabling everybody to get the maximum benefit of being together. In the evenings the JGU Mainz team also arranged tours of the labs at the University for the more technically-minded people.
On the final day of the meeting, before people returned home, the group embarked on a visit to the Glauberg museum and archaeological site. Before their organised tour of the museum the group had the chance to take a walk around the Glauberg plateau where they could see remnants of various Celtic and medieval settlements along with stunning panoramic views of the German countryside. The museum tour was extremely interesting with artifacts from warriors graves along with the statue of the Prince of Glauberg with his mistletoe crown. That evening the group had their final meal in the typically German setting of Eisgrub-Bräu. With giant schnitzels, pork knuckles and craft beer, it was a great way to finish a successful and productive meeting.
