Signatures of Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity at EGU General Assemblies

The EGU recognises the importance of equality, diversity, and inclusion as a crucial foundation for scientific research to address fundamental scientific questions and societally relevant environmental challenges. The increasing diversity of our membership in all its facets fosters collaborative research and discovery that benefits humanity and our planet.

Since its founding, the EGU has worked to ensure equitable treatment for everyone in the community with the goal of increasing diversity. In autumn 2018, the EGU Council established a working group whose aim is to promote and support equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in the Earth, planetary, and space sciences, with a focus on EGU activities. Less than three years later, the EDI group was upgraded into a committee and has delivered numerous actions.

The most recent achievements of EDI@EGU are the Champion(s) for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Award that is bestowed to recognize excellent contributions to put into exemplary practice the principles of EDI. Furthermore, the EDI Committee is currently working on a new travel support scheme to promote diversity at the EGU General assemblies.

The above actions resulted in a more diverse attendance at EGU General Assemblies along the years. The total number of presenters has increased over the time period 2015-2023, and this increase was observed throughout all career stages. The proportion of women presenters has increased from 2015 to 2023. A similar trend was observed for the convenors, an increase in total numbers over the years and a higher proportion of women in 2023 than in 2015.

In the hybrid meeting in 2023 both early career scientists and more senior scientists to a higher extent participated physically in the meeting than online. While there were no differences in how women and men participated (online or physically), there are differences connected to the country affiliations. More than half of participants from countries in most of western Europe attended in Vienna, while participants from North America and Asia attended online.

Since EGU General Assembly is the largest geosciences conference in Europe understanding the demographic evolution and their participation to EGU activities, including the GA, of various groups is an important tool for EGU governing body to draw targeted actions to ensure that the current procedures are fair and that all in the community are being and feeling included. We therefore aim to analyse the changes in demographics with regards to gender, career stage as well as to geographical distribution of the presenters and convenors also in coming years to better understand the potential impacts of meetings organized online or physically, or as a combination of both these modes.