Understanding earth materials is critical to creating a sustainable, carbon-neutral society due to their involvement in many vital processes. Earth materials control the feasibility of subsurface energy storage, geothermal energy extraction, and are a source of critical elements for future-proof battery technologies. However, perturbations to geological systems can also result in hazards, such as human-induced earthquakes. If we want to tackle the current, pressing scientific questions related to sustainable development for a circular economy, there is an urgent need to make multi-scale, multi-dimensional characterisations of earth materials available to a broad spectrum of earth-science disciplines. In addition to the societyrelevant topics, the properties of earth materials determine how the Earth works on the most fundamental level. To overcome this challenge, 15 European facilities for electron and X-ray microscopy join forces to establish EXCITE (Electron and X-ray microscopy community for structural and chemical imaging techniques for earth materials). The collective aim of the EXCITE starting community is to enable access to high-end microscopy facilities and to join the knowledge and experience from the different institutions. By doing so, EXCITE will develop community-driven technological imaging advancements that will strengthen and extend the current implementation of leading-edge microscopy for earth-materials research. In particular, the EXCITE strategy is to integrate joint research programmes with networking, training, and transnational access activities, to enable both academia and industry to answer critical questions in earth-materials science and technology. As such, EXCITE builds a community of highly qualified earth scientists, develops correlative imaging technologies and provides access to world-class facilities to particularly new and non-expert users that are often hindered from engaging in problem-solving microscopy of earth-materials.