From October 28 to 30, Prof. Guo Huadong, head of SDIM, led a delegation to the 2nd International Workshop on Observations and Understanding of Changes in High Mountain and Cold Regions (HiMAC 2018) held in Helsinki, Finland, and delivered the report entitled “DBAR-PEEX Cross-Continental Cooperation”. Following the workshop, discussions were held on how to engage research forces concerned in collaborative research on applying big Earth data to disaster risk reduction, climate change, air quality and on how to give science and technology a bigger role in realizing the UN SDGs.