Strengthening the TIMES Community: Who we are and what we want to become

The TIMES (Time Integrated Matrix for Earth Sciences) community is composed of over 300 scientists worldwide with a common goal of building an accurate timescale for the last 100 million years of Earth’s history (Westerhold et al. 2024). By generating an improved timeline of events, we can better comprehend the forcings and feedback mechanisms controlling the Earth-climate system. This effort is essential as the consequences of human‑induced climate change are ongoing and unavoidable, with significantly varying impacts across regions, environments, and communities. To achieve this goal we need a broad set of global perspectives, scientific specialties, regional datasets, and proxy methods; moreover, we must support the people who conduct Earth Science research – the TIMES Community.

Here, we present the results of a benchmark survey distributed to the TIMES mailing list during the first hybrid Kickoff Workshop which took place in Washington D.C., USA in August 2025. The survey was designed to gauge the demographics, values, interests, and agreements of the TIMES community near its inception and use those results to create a living roadmap towards a more globally inclusive scientific community. From the collected data, we underscore the current imbalances in the TIMES community and identify a starting point that centers the values, interests, aspirations and community commitments of TIMES. We call on every member of the TIMES initiative and invite the geoscience community to join us in shaping this roadmap of who we are and what we aspire to become.