Following a multi-disciplinary and earth compartment-connecting approach, the research project Digital Earth integrates and harvests the competences of all eight Helmholtz Centres in the research field Earth and Environment. Through a data science approach, which, in addition to the development of SMART monitoring designs, drives the establishment of a data exploration framework, we seek a data-driven gain in knowledge for a holistic view of the Earth system. Redundancies in the development of methods, services and workflows shall be avoided and know-how widely distributed and sustained. Natural scientists and data scientists work closely together to gain new insights from the ever-growing amount and variety of research data using novel concepts and methods. Together they are looking for solutions, in particular with regard to the processing of fast-growing, multi-parameter data sets through the use of existing data science methods, the adaptation of new algorithms and the development of digital workflows. More information about Digital Earth can be found at https://digitalearth.geomar.de/.