Survey on early career travel support shows geographic, career stage, and indigenous status inequality in access to polar science events

The Association of Polar Early Career Scientists is an international organization with membership representing 70 countries. Members are mostly graduate students and post-docs, though 29% are early career professionals in other polar-related career tracks. A survey was sent in summer 2019 to APECS members and polar science community members asking about travel support needs and how respondents’ recent travel was funded. Participants described the perceived availability of different types and sources of travel funding. Availability of travel awards and the expectation that early career researchers would pay for their meeting-related travel out of personal funds varies widely between countries, career stage and indigenous status. Substantially higher travel support is often needed to support participants from countries outside the US, Canada, and Northern Europe because of both the higher cost of traveling to typical meeting destinations coupled with lower availability of supplemental or full travel support. This presentation will cover the international patterns in early career travel funding, the utility of travel advances and the importance of making funding decisions eaerly enough for ECRs as a way to promote diversity in polar sciences.