The ICOS Handbook 2024 is out now, so here’s the behind the scenes of what I’ve been working on for the last 8 months 💡
The goal of ICOS Handbook is to provide a comprehensive overview of ICOS for our community as well as for external audiences. It describes how ICOS operates from the organisational structure to measurement specifications and financial requirements. It is a publication that is updated every 2 years and coordinated by the communications team at ICOS Head Office. For the 2024 edition, I was given the opportunity to lead this task 😎
It required most if not all the skills in my skillset, including:
🗃 Coordination and task management. Keeping track of updates from dozens of contributors with different deadlines for different groups was the most time-consuming part of the whole process. Spending a bit of time at the beginning of the task to set up a task management and tracking process that worked for me was essential. I used a pretty extensive excel spreadsheet (hat tip to Laurent Chmiel who shared his tips and production workflow templates with me last autumn), but Trello, Miro or similar could be used too. Some deadlines needed to be adjusted as the work progressed and challenges arose, but because of the prep work, shifting the timeline back and forth was pretty straightforward.
🎨 Visual design. For the graphic design and layout of the Handbook I worked with Inka Kosonen. She did all the layout and most of the figures (with maps provided by Ida Storm from Carbon Portal 🌍) and choosing the right photos for some of the chapters was a collaborative process. I am particularly happy with how the cover turned out – I had an idea of what I wanted the vibe of the 2024 cover to be (light, cheerful and summery) and I am so pleased we found photos from the #ExploreICOS campaign that matched that 🌻🌻🌻
📝 Writing and editing. Most of the writing was done by my colleagues across the ICOS community so my role was to fine tune and edit when needed. I enjoy seeing complex ideas brought into chapters and paragraphs that are clear and impactful, and I feel like that was achieved here.
📖 Proofreading. And then proofreading some more. Safe to say I am an expert in the inner workings of ICOS research infrastructure 😊
I hope this provides some insight in what goes into producing something like the ICOS Handbook, whether you are planning to make something similar for your Research Infrastructure or are just curious to see how ICOS works.
On a personal note, thank you to all who contributed to the Handbook, to my team members and Head Office colleagues for support, guidance, and trust in my ability to get the job done 💪. It's been a group effort and I'm happy to have worked so closely with so many of you ✨
📯 ICOS Handbook 2024 is out now! 📯
Read all about our #ResearchInfrastructure, the extensive #GHGs observations network (including stations in Ireland and Greece, our newest member countries!) and so much more.
The goal of this publication is to provide a comprehensive overview of ICOS for our community as well as for external audiences and future member countries, we really hope anyone who reads it, finds it useful!
More info: https://lnkd.in/dgVVcxqX
#ENRVRI #EU_RIs #OpenData
🇵🇷 BizDev | Client Experience | Solutions Architect
3wPretty excited to be on the virtual stage with Russ. :)