Status and Progress 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. The increasing diversity of our membership in all its facets fosters collaborative research and discovery that benefits humanity and our planet and contributes to reaching the goal of addressing global challenges.

The EGU EDI Committee, since its foundation in 2021, is actively promoting diversity in the EGU initiatives and community. The aim of the EDI Committee is to promote equality, diversity and inclusivity with a broad vision and a global approach, by working with sister associations.

The EDI Committee tasks currently include: (1) Promoting the EGU vision of EDI via an integrated, co-ordinated and constructive approach; (2) 
Raising awareness of the value of EDI within the scientific community; (3) Organising sessions and meetings dedicated to EDI issues as part of the EGU General Assembly, and at other conferences and meetings organised by EGU and its sibling societies; (4) Representing EGU on relevant initiatives focusing on EDI in the geosciences; (5) Providing constructive suggestions and ideas to the EGU Council to promote EDI within the organisation, and the geosciences in general.

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, a new travel support scheme to promote diversity at the EGU General assemblies, is first activated in 2025.

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 2015-2024, and this increase was observed throughout all career stages. The proportion of women presenters has increased from 2015 to 2024.

In the hybrid meeting in 2024 approximately 90% of the participants attended in Vienna. A slightly higher proportion of the oldest (>75 years) and youngest (18-25 years) participants attended online. While there were no differences in how women and men participated (online or physically), there are differences connected to the country affiliations. The great majority of participants from countries in most of western Europe, Asia and North America attended in Vienna, while more participants from other continents attended online.

We aim to analyse the changes in demographics with regards to gender, career stage as well as to geographical distribution of the presenters and participants also in coming years to better understand the potential impacts of meetings organized online or physically, or as a combination of both these modes.