Abstract
A warm welcome to the second issue of Volume 130 of Applied Earth Science. This issue contains the abstracts from the online version of the annual Mineral Deposits Studies Group (MDG) Winter Meeting held virtually on 14th December 2020. This is the 44th iteration of this annual meeting and although the number of participants was smaller than usual, the event, as always, highlights some of the research being undertaken by economic geologists within the UK and beyond. I encourage all of you to take a look at these abstracts and see what research is being undertaken by up-and-coming researchers in our field.
The positive outlook I mentioned in my last editorial continues, although the mitigation of the COVID-19 crisis means that other issues seem to be appearing on the horizon. These include cuts to university funding and budgets around the world for a variety of reasons, including issues over international student mobility, government funding cuts, and more. We can only hope that these cuts are short-term and that university funding of all types rebounds as rapidly as parts of the global economy appear to be. This is especially true of the geosciences, which will have a crucial role in supplying the raw materials required for a future with low- and zero-CO2 energy and transport, a future that is needed if we are to effectively mitigate the effects of anthropogenic climate change. The university sector both undertakes vital research in this area (and beyond) and produces the geoscientists of the future, meaning that any cuts that affect these areas may well hamper our ability to meet any increased demand for geoscientists in the minerals sector and beyond. If you have not already read it, the AGI's Critical Needs 2020 publication outlines the roles of geoscientists in all aspects of society, and is a useful tool for those of you who might need to argue the value of geoscience to modern life and society (see https://www.americangeosciences.org/policy/critical-needs/2020). Ensuring the general public and policymakers understand the wider impact of all of our various subdisciplines of geoscience is crucial given the challenging times that may lay ahead; to paraphrase Dr Anthony Fauci, we can see light at the end of the tunnel, but there is certainly some travelling to be done before we emerge back into normality, or whatever normality looks like in a post-COVID-19 world where this virus is finally under control. As ever, stay healthy and safe, and see you in issue 3.