Equality of opportunities in EGU recognitions: The EGU Awards Committee experience

The European Geosciences Union (EGU) is the leading organisation supporting Earth, planetary and space science research in Europe, upholding and promoting the highest standards of scientific integrity, open science and open access research. EGU’s vision is to realise a sustainable and just future for humanity and the planet through advances in Earth, planetary and space sciences.

The EGU awards and medals programme acknowledges distinguished scientists every year for their exceptional research contribution to the Earth, planetary and space sciences. Furthermore, it recognises the awardees as role models for the following generation of early-career scientists, encouraging geoscience research. 

Except for EGU council and award committee members everyone (including non-EGU members) is eligible for receiving an EGU award. Nominations need to be submitted by EGU members online by 15 June every year. Each EGU medal or award is selected through a rigorous assessment of the candidates and their merits through the respective committee. The procedures for nomination, selection of candidates and the time schedule are described in detail on the EGU website. 

EGU is committed to recognizing scientific excellence providing equal opportunities. The processes and procedures that lead to the recognition of excellence must be transparent and free of biases. However, establishment of clear and transparent evaluation criteria and performance metrics to provide equal opportunities to researchers across gender, continents and ethnic groups can be challenging since the definition of scientific excellence is often elusive. 

The purpose of this presentation is to share the experiences and efforts of the European Geosciences Union to ensure equal opportunities. The presentation will showcase data and statistics to provide constructive directions towards the objective of offering equal opportunities to researchers from diverse demographic backgrounds.