The Center of Expertise in Big Geodata Science was established in March 2020, during the week Faculty of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) building was closed for the first time due to COVID-19. Like the circumstances of the time, the structure and embedding of the Center was also new to ITC. So besides strong signposts for the path to follow, there were also many unknowns. There still are. During the Geo-information Processing Department (ITC-GIP) Expertise Meeting, Serkan presented his experience and lessons learned during the first 18 months of the Center, which is now reaching the end of the initial phase with well-established core facilities serving ITC staff and students, active participation to research and capacity development activities, and a decent visibility both inside and outside ITC.