As evidenced by the group photo taken on the occasion of the project’s first progress meeting, the ISLANDR partnership joined the event in full strength. The meeting was hosted by Chalmers University of Technology on its campus in Gothenburg, Sweden, and took place during 26 to 27 October 2023. The meeting was a great opportunity for the partners to come together and get a comprehensive overview of the progress in each work package, as well as identify upcoming challenges and opportunities for the project and the work packages. With 36 participants representing all ISLANDR organisations, the meeting was successful. At the beginning of the meeting, the Project manager Juha Kaija and Scientific coordinator Kirsti Loukola-Ruskeeniemi told that the Gothenburg meeting is our second onsite physical meeting and there has been really good progress in the work packages! They were especially happy that good connections have been established with several important stakeholders. These include the European Union Soil Observatory (EUSO), Common Forum as well as our sister projects EDAPHOS and SoilWise. They thanked everyone for the commitment work that has been done for ISLANDR during the first 6 months. The progress meeting began with dedicated lively brainstorming sessions which focused on several aspects of ISLANDR. These included the challenges and future work plans related to the: preliminary inventories of local and diffuse soil pollution, information on the ISLANDR Metadata catalogue and cooperation with SoilWise HE-project repository, spatial planning models, their prioritisation and approaches for contaminated soil and land reuse, decision framework for remediation, policy support and dialogue, soil health indicators and survey on the local value perceptions. The first day concluded with an excellent progress meeting dinner in a relaxed atmosphere offered by Chalmers at the Chalmerska Huset (Chalmers’ House). Chalmers’ House is a historical meeting place in the middle of Gothenburg. The house was home to William Chalmers, the owner and director of the East India Company and the actual founder of Chalmers University of Technology (read up on an interesting story at: ABOUT CHALMERSSKA HUSET).