Next Generation Cartographers

Welcome to Next Generation Cartographers, a group dedicated to advocacy, support and mentorship for early career cartographers within academic and professional cartography.

Our group strives to create a safe and welcoming space for the next generation of cartographers to share work, find inspiration, and connect with each other worldwide. We’re so glad you’re here!

We consider early career cartographers to include students in the later stages of their education and early career academics, professionals, and cartography enthusiasts. Not an early career cartographer? More senior scholars and cartographic professionals are most welcome in as advocates for and mentors to the next generation of cartographers.

This website is maintained by the Working Group Next Generation Cartographers of the International Cartographic Association (ICA).

Upcoming events and networking opportunities

We are currently processing our impressions from hugely successful meet-ups at EuroCarto in Vienna and the Carto-Viz Workshop in Warsaw.

Some of our members will also join AsiaCarto 2024 in Hong Kong (December 8–10, 2024); we look forward to distributing our badges during the event and meeting more Asian next generation cartographers.

The next real-world meeting opportunities for the broader community will probably be at ICC 2025 in Vancouver, CA (August 16–22, 2025).

In the meantime, we frequently organize online meetings and meet-ups. We communicate them on Discord and via our mailing list (see below).

Any ideas, questions, or concerns? – Come and say Hi in our Discord chat!

News & Media

Contact us

Join the community

Terms of reference

The latest draft of our code of conduct is in effect until consensus on a final version is reached.

The Next Generation Cartographers initiative ( ) aims to support cartographers in the early stages of their career, both in academic and professional contexts. The initiative seeks to provide opportunities and a safe space for mutual support and exchange, and to raise awareness for the needs and demands of next generation cartographers within the field of cartography and its established institutions.

We consider “next generation cartographers” to include students towards the later stages of their education as well as young professionals, early career academics, and map enthusiasts; more senior academics and professionals are also very welcome if they want to promote the interests of the next generation and support them as mentors or advisors.

Details

Goals

Values

The basis of the group's operation are the values of inclusiveness, diversity, and openness. is a network and a safe space based on mutual trust and respect.

A code of conduct shall be developed that promotes these values and also allows for a wide range of opinions, views, and approaches to have a voice in the conversation.

The initiative is seeking to achieve this vision with the following activities

  1. Serve as a contact point for next generation cartographers by:
    1. maintaining the website, mailing list, and other suitable means of communication and knowledge sharing,
    2. developing resources about the initiative.
  2. Organize regular online meetings for the exchange of knowledge and networking.
  3. Organize social events during cartographic conferences to facilitate networking among members of the community.
  4. Encourage members of community to take up leading roles in cartography and support their professional career development by:
    1. disseminating information about job and professional development opportunities, project funding, etc.,
    2. promoting the involvement of members of community in decision-making bodies in cartographic organizations (such as International Cartographic Association [ICA] and regional cartographic societies).
  5. Facilitate establishing mentor-mentee relationships for members of the community between members in more senior positions and emerging professionals.
  6. Endorse critical approaches in cartography by co-organising events and supporting collaboration to facilitate ideas exchange.
  7. Cooperate with the cartographic community by:
    1. promoting the participation of the community in scientific events,
    2. participating in ICA Commissions’ work.
    3. engaging in cartographic institutions on the global and regional level and lobbying for the interests of the community within those (e.g. active outreach to young scholars and professionals, lobbying simple and affordable membership for students and early-career cartographers etc.)
  8. Present issues related to initiative at cartographic conferences and in journals and other media.
  9. Creating opportunities for collaborations with related disciplines (e.g., computer science, IT, engineering) - extending our network in a transdisciplinary manner

Participation

Members

Note: If you want to be added to the this section please contact us or create a pull request on our github repository.

(in randomized order on every page load)