On behalf of the Editorial Board of Geotechnical Research, we welcome our readers to the first issue of volume 7 (2020). This issue includes one briefing, five papers and one discussion. A ‘briefing’ is an article to provide short (not comprehensive) authoritative updates of relevant technical, regulatory and professional developments. ‘Papers’, on the other hand, include research, case study or project papers. A research paper is a conventional academic research article with original findings from an investigation, whereas a case study looks at the effects of the implementation of, for example, a system and analyses it, in the context of the situation. A ‘discussion’ allows the reader to comment on a previously published paper in Geotechnical Research and gives authors the right to reply under a peer-reviewing process by a member of the Editorial Board. The growing number and the diversity of contributions, covering both academia and industry, in Geotechnical Research indicates its strong commitment and high accomplishment to the geotechnical profession. We would like to thank our readers, authors, reviewers and panel members for their contribution.