“EuroGEOSS, advancing the vision of GEOSS” is the title of a EuroGEOSS conference in Madrid, Spain, from Jan. 25-27, 2012.

The event will focus on facilitating and demonstrating multi-disciplinary solutions to environmental issues facing humanity.

The challenge for addressing issues such as climate change, food security or ecosystem sustainability is that they require cross-discipline collaboration and the ability to integrate information across scientific domains, according to news release.

These collaborations are difficult because each discipline has its own “language,” protocols and formats for communicating within its community and handling data and information.

A list of keynote speakers includes:

Gilberto Camara, a researcher on Geoinformatics and Environmental Modelling at the Image Processing Division of Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research;

Ivan DeLoatch, executive director of the U.S. Federal Geographic Data Committee;

Ian Jackson, a member of the OneGeology Executive at the British Geological Survey.

The EuroGEOSS 2012 conference is due to include applications presentations as well as information technology.

A post-conference special edition is planned of International Journal of Spatial Data Infrastructures Research.

The deadline for journal submissions is Feb. 15.