The International Soil Moisture Working Group (ISMWG) has been promoting and stimulating the development of a global in-situ soil moisture network. With the lack of such a network world wide and only scattered availability of soil moisture measurements and networks it was timely to initiate such a development of a network that would fit within the context of the GEOSS implementation plan.

In 2007 the European Space Agency (ESA) initiated a contract with the Portuguese Meteorological Institute to enable the hosting of such a network. For the it is seen as a crucial contribution to the calibration and validation of ESA's Soil Moisture and Salinity Mission called SMOS which is expected to be launched in 2008. However, it is important to note that such a network will and should go beyond satellite validation and should help increase the understanding in global water cycle research. It is also perceived that such a network will be invaluable in flood and drought prediction and early warning systems.

Within this paper the results are presented from the 2nd ISMWG Workshop held in Beijing in November, 2007 and the way forward in establishing the global in-situ soil moisture network.