The 1^st Telecon of the Indian Ocean Early Career Scientists Working Group (IOECS WG) was organized successfully on 21 October 2021, with 17 participants from IORP, YESS, IIOE-2 ECSN and WIO-ECSN. The IOECS WG was motivated during the IORP-17, to strengthen the coordination of existing efforts made by different ECS groups in the Indian Ocean region.

The meeting was chaired by Dr. Juliet Hermes, co-chair of the CLIVAR/IOC-GOOS Indian Ocean Region Panel (IORP). Dr. Roxy Mathew Koll, co-chair of IORP, briefly introduced the scope of work, membership, as well as major achievements of panel, with the focus on IndOOS Decade Review coordinated by IORP as well as an idea of developing the ‘Indian Ocean Ambassador’ initiative. Dr. Priyanka Yadav introduced basic structure and operations of the Young Earth System Scientists (YESS) community, and Dr. Feba Francis also from YESS highlighted the WCRP Academy Lighthouse Activity and its ongoing survey. Dr. Melisa Brock gave a presentation on IIOE-2 ECSN. And Dr. Riaan Cedras introduced the WIO ECSN, which was established by WIOMSA in 2017. He particularly emphasized their work under the UN Ocean Decade, e.g. the Ocean Decade Challenges brochure for the region, the engagement with the UN ECOP program, as well as the Fenoy-X data platform, which is an endorsed project by the Ocean Decade created for the region, to identify the gaps in the region, do assessments across the region and build an online database.

Participants recognized the needs to gather the existing social media, websites, etc. for each ECS group in order to see how information is disseminated and to better facilitate information exchanges among different groups. The WG members will add their input on Google Doc, and maintain the active interactions via the ECS Slack Channel.

Jing Li also highlighted the existing efforts and opportunities to strengthen the ECS engagement in CLIVAR, which include the ongoing Open Call for New Members of CLIVAR Panels and SSG (due on 29 October 2021), the ECS ‘Spotlight on a scientist’ on CLIVAR website, and ECS section in the CLIVAR monthly bulletin, etc., and suggested to have a dedicated webpage for the IOECS WG, affiliated to the IORP webpage.

The 1^st telecon of the IOECS WG can considered as an ice-breaker session, and the WG will further develop the Terms of Reference for the WG, and explore opportunities for future collaboration, e.g. capacity building through joint cruises and papers, co-organising conference sessions and workshops, enhancing information and knowledge sharing among different ECS groups, etc.