The 7th SPARC General Assembly was organized on 24-28 October 2022. In order to lower carbon footprint, this GA was held in three hubs: the Europe hub in Reading, UK, the Americas hub in Boulder, USA, and the Asia hub in Qingdao, China, offering participants with opportunities to join the nearest site. The Asia hub was hosted by the First Institute of Oceanography (FIO), Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), China, with support of the International CLIVAR Project Office, and attracted around 70 registrations. Due to the COVID-19 epidemic and its prevention, about 38 participants managed to attend the conference onsite.

The welcome session on 24 October was shared by the Europe and Asia hubs. Prof Fangli Qiao, Deputy Director General of FIO, made an opening remark. Dr Li Li, Director of the International Division of FIO, introduced some logistics arrangement before the first oral session was kicked off.

The GA consisted of oral presentations, discussions, poster galleries, and local side events. During the week, scientists listened to 36 oral reports, 4 of which were delivered onsite in Qingdao. The poster gallery of the Asia Hub showcased 14 posters covering various relevant topics.

In the Asia hub, three local offline side events were organized. On Wednesday afternoon, an ECR Forum themed on “UN Ocean Decade and SPARC: from science to solution” was convened by Dr Shizhu Wang from FIO. At this forum, with the presentation given by Dr Song Guan, Senior Manager of the UN Decade Collaboration Centre, young scholars got familiar with one of the most important ocean initiatives under the UN framework and the contributions made by China. After that, the group also had an active discussion with senior mentors from FIO on a series of topics, such as the linkage between the UN Ocean Decade and stratosphere-troposphere research, ECRs’ engagement in international cooperation, etc.

On Thursday morning, participants visited the Qingdao City Exhibition Hall. The visit was rich in content and highly interactive. Taking urban planning and development as the context, it visually showed Qingdao’s urban history, land and space planning, etc. All participants really enjoyed this visit.

The conference banquet was organized on Wednesday night. The experts and ECRs in Qingdao tasted local seafood and the famous Tsingtao Beer together. The relaxed environment really helped people open up and chat with each other. In a nutshell, these activities have offered participants with opportunities of networking and building friendship with each other and it can benefit not only during the conference, but in the longer timescale.

The Asia bub concluded in the afternoon of 28 October, with a closing ceremony chaired by Prof Seok-Woo Son, co-chair of the SPARC Scientific Steering Group (SSG), and joined by the Europe hub. Prof Seok-Woo Son and Prof Fangli Qiao both made their closing remarks by highlighting the past five days and expressing their thankfulness towards the participants, the SPARC organizing committee, and the local organizing team. Some onsite experts and ECRs also provided some valuable feedback. One participant suggested to have more inter-hub interactions for future multi-hub events.