Following the success of previous years, this session will explore reasons for the under-representation of different groups (cultural, national and gender) by welcoming debate among scientists, decision-makers and policy analysts in the geosciences.

The session will focus on both obstacles that contribute to under-representation and on best practices and innovative ideas to remove those obstacles. Contributions are solicited on the following topics:

- Role models to inspire and further motivate others (life experience and/or their contributions to promote equality)
- Imbalanced representation, preferably supported by data, for awards, medals, grants, high-level positions, invited talks and papers
- Perceived and real barriers to inclusion (personally, institutionally, culturally)
- Recommendations for new and innovative strategies to identify and overcome barriers
- Best practices and strategies to move beyond barriers, including:
• successful mentoring programmes
• networks that work
• specific funding schemes
• examples of host institutions initiatives

This session is co-organised with AGU and the European Research Council (ERC).

In this session, led by the Mountain Research Initiative (MRI), we invite contributions to explore diverse experiences with inter- and transdisciplinary research (ID-TD research), education and practice, as it is specifically applied in the mountain context. Taking mountains as complex social-ecological systems, they offer a concrete and spatially-defined context in which to explore how global change phenomena such as elevation dependent warming and climate change, land-use change, tourism, natural hazards, energy and social demographic change manifest and interlink simultaneously in these unique spaces. Addressing societal concerns and solutions with regards to associated impacts and implications for sustainable mountain development in response to these processes of change, requires an inter- and transdisciplinary approach to research and practice. We seek to convey and explore the mountain-specific challenges for this mode of research, education and training for IT-TD in mountains, as well as innovations to deal with these challenges. We also hope to foster a network and community of practice within the MRI, that offers a mountains perspective to IT-TD research and contribute to its theory, methodology and practice.

www.mountainresearchinitiative.org