Orals: Thu, 1 May | Room -2.21
Equitable Letters in Space and Physics (ELSP) is an organization that aims to encourage merit-based recommendations and nominations in the space physics community by providing resources and reviews. Recommendation and award nomination letters are a known source of bias that affect education and job opportunities, career progression, and recognition for scientists from underrepresented backgrounds. ELSP was founded to combat this bias within the current system by providing a proof-reading service that focuses on identifying phrasing and structure within letters that unintentionally undermines the purpose of the missive. If you are writing a recommendation letter for someone you know professionally, you can send it to us and we will send it out to our reviewers. They will provide recommendations on how you can make your letter more equitable and less biased, using a combination of the techniques and resources described on our site, with the aim to make unbiased recommendation letters more accessible to all. If you are interested in being a reviewer or having your writing reviewed, please reach out to us.
How to cite: Halford, A., Burrell, A., Coxon, J., Jones, M., Zawdie, K., and Barnam, J.: Working towards more equitable recomendations and nomination letters: Equitable Letters for Space and Physics, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-20423, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-20423, 2025.
There has been a significant increase in both the number of publications and number of citations in the last decade partly fueled by the increased exposure to research papers and such as Google Scholar, Web of Science, ResearchGate, etc. The large data set of scientific literature and respective authors in these platforms can be utilized to get a broad overview of academic discourse. This project aims to investigate the state of academia in the field of Natural Hazards and Climate Extremes using Google Scholar data. A comprehensive set of relevant tags (such as earthquake, volcano, natural hazards, climate extremes etc.) were used to filter the researchers. Additionally, a threshold of 500 citations or more was applied to focus on the most influential academics in this field. We limited the analysis to the period 1990-2023 and subsequently stratified the obtained results by gender (as perceived by the authors) and country of affiliation of the researchers. Data for number of publications was also collected for each of the researchers.
Among 2612 researchers identified, 77.2% are male, 22.6% female, and 0.2% could not be categorized into male or female. Male researchers, on average, received a larger median number of citations compared to women even though the gender citation gap in percentage has been decreasing over the last decade. Notably, regression analysis showed that, there is limited difference in number of citations per publication between the two genders. The data also shows that 78.5% of citations are attributed to researchers in high-income countries, 14.4% for those in middle-income countries, and 7.1% for those in low-income countries despite researchers in low- and middle-income countries publishing more papers per year, on average, than their counter parts in high-income countries. The researchers from high-income countries also get larger number of citations per author, on average, even when controlling for number of publications. However, the citation gap between high-income and low- and middle-income countries has narrowed in recent years. Interestingly, the observed citation gap between researchers is more pronounced due to income group than gender. In conclusion, even though disasters affect poor countries and women disproportionately, the fact that the field of natural hazards and climate extremes is largely high-income country and male-dominated raises fundamental questions on teh epistemology and legitimacy of the scientific knowledge that has been generated.
How to cite: Shrestha, S. R., Olivetti, L., Pandey, S., Worou, K., and Rafetti, E.: The Citation Gap: An overview of academic output in the field of Natural Hazards and Climate Extremes analysed through Google Scholar data, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-11159, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-11159, 2025.
Cata de Ciencia: Bridging the Gender Gap in STEM Through Community Engagement and Visibility
The persistent gender gap in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) has hindered diversity and innovation for decades. Women and girls are consistently underrepresented in these fields, limiting their career trajectories and obstructing the development of inclusive, diverse solutions for global challenges. Increasing the visibility of female role models has been identified as a critical strategy to address this disparity (e.g. Carter et al., 2018; Halili & Martin, 2019). However, studies show that women in STEM are often more vulnerable to stereotypes and biases, particularly when presenting their work in public forums (e.g. Carter et al., 2018; McKinnon & O’Connell, 2020). Cata de Ciencia aims to foster a supportive environment to promote women in STEM by showcasing their achievements and engaging a diverse local audience. This initiative combines public science communication with gender equity goals. Monthly events held in Segovia, Spain, feature presentations by local women scientists, followed by interactive discussions with the audience in an informal setting accompanied by wine and tapas. The format promotes accessibility, relatability, and inclusivity, addressing the stereotype that scientific excellence is exclusive to men or specific cultures (Carter et al., 2018; McKinnon & O’Connell, 2020). The project pursues two main objectives: increasing the visibility of women in STEM within the region of Castilla y León and promoting the dissemination of science to the public in a welcoming, interactive format.
References
Carter, A. J., Croft, A., Lukas, D., & Sandstrom, G. M. (2018). Women’s visibility in academic seminars: Women ask fewer questions than men. PloS one, 13(9), e0202743.
Halili, M. A., & Martin, J. L. (2019). How to Make the Invisible Women of STEM Visible. Australian Journal of Chemistry, 73(3), 75-77.
McKinnon, M., & O’Connell, C. (2020). Perceptions of stereotypes applied to women who publicly communicate their STEM work. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 7(1).
How to cite: Huguet, C. and Polanco Palomar, S.: Cata de Ciencia: Bridging the Gender Gap in STEM Through Community Engagement and Visibility, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-1469, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-1469, 2025.
No geoscientist is an island. It is not good practice for a geoscientist to act in isolation; rather, geoscientists need to be part of a welcoming community to thrive. How a professional geoscientist interacts with other geoscientists, non-geoscientists and society is essential for building a culture and environment of conscious inclusion by celebrating the diversity of one and all. This means proactively creating environments where geoscientists and others can collaborate and feel comfortable communicating openly. Recognizing and understanding how unconscious bias and privileges can create divisions and foster negative professional (toxic) environments. The presentation will look beyond professional bodies’ codes of conduct, and it will introduce what Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and Accessibility (EDIA) means. These concepts are vital to consider from the attraction, retention, and progression of professional geoscientists and the reputation of the communities we represent. Several self-awareness exercises will also be shared to explore potential, implicit bias.
How to cite: Griffin, M.: Embedding Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility (EDIA) within a Professional Geoscientist’s Lifestyle, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-6886, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-6886, 2025.
The triumphant implementation of equity, diversity, and inclusivity (EDI) programs in academia after more than a decade of increasing pressure and promise has brought hope to many but, unfortunately, justice to few. Enough time has passed to reveal the fraught inner workings of academia and their ability to make effective change, even as universities might be expected to lead with exemplary behavior. Sadly, the reverse is true. Failure of universities to act or react appropriately has seriously crippled EDI efforts in many academic settings. University administrators and even university presidents have lost their employment for taking EDI seriously. Those facts severely degrade the EDI landscape in academia going forward.
Stepping back and turning a scientific lens on the university environment, what are the flaws in implementation? They are rooted in human behavior and decision-making in adversarial surroundings, the recipe for fear. One might line up the course of action in three steps: (1) identifying the issues, (2) building a structure and path toward solution, and (3) establishing a university-sanctioned outcome that removes perpetual perpetrators and enables, even celebrates, those with the courage to speak up. A power relationship is almost always part of the play. Alas, though the first step is generally mastered, the second step is better known as “protecting the university at all costs”, and completion of the third step is dead rare. Rather, the rare settlement involves a victim signing away their right to talk to the press, so as not to damage the university’s reputation. This obvious three-act opera loses footing in the second act. The outcome is driven by “what is the easiest path for the university” and is too rarely driven by doing the right thing. The EDI system at most universities presents the ultimate conflict-of-interest: university lawyers are paid by the university or its governing body and thus, are indebted to them for employment and the outcomes of EDI decisions they make.
Failure to Act is a three-act play that explores the darker workings behind the academic scenery. Can we change the storyline so that students and faculty will believe that the system works for them, should they ever need it? That is far from the standard we have now, even as sometimes generous funding has been diverted to build up EDI programming in academia.
How to cite: Stein, H. and Hannah, J.: Failure to Act: Universities’ Promising EDI Template Withering on the Vine, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-20788, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-20788, 2025.
The geosciences are at a pivotal moment as institutions, organizations, and individuals confront long-standing inequities to create a more inclusive and representative future. As a geoscientist actively engaged in equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) initiatives, I have witnessed both the barriers and breakthroughs shaping this transformation. Notably, the geosciences have some of the poorest metrics for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in STEM disciplines. Guided by the principle, “What gets measured, gets done,” my work has focused on quantifying EDI impacts to drive meaningful progress.
Drawing on my role as an executive member of the Canadian Geophysical Union’s EDI Committee, I will present key findings from a comprehensive EDI report on representation statistics from Canadian Geophysical Union conferences since 2018. As a director on the board of Women Geoscientists in Canada, a prominent organization supporting women in technical roles, I will highlight the challenges and successes in addressing gender imbalance and improving diversity within the mining industry.
Lastly as a federal research scientist working on critical mineral exploration and green energy transitions, I will explore how EDI efforts can advance community engagement, inclusive excellence, interdisciplinary collaboration, ethical fieldwork, and environmental justice. By sharing these experiences across government, industry, and academia, this presentation will offer actionable strategies to address barriers and inspire collaboration for a more equitable future in Canadian geosciences.
How to cite: Dave, R.: Advancing Equity in Geosciences: Insights and Actions from the Canadian EDI Landscape, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-14621, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-14621, 2025.
Geo-INQUIRE, an EU Horizon project starting in 2022, brings together 51 partners, including high-level research institutes, universities and European consortia from different EU countries. The project aims to improve access to selected key data, products and services to monitor and model the dynamic processes within the geosphere at new levels of spatial and temporal detail and accuracy. With 150 Virtual Access (VA) and Transnational Access (TA) facilities, together with tailored mentoring programs, including workshops (both online and face-to-face), trainings and seminars, Geo-INQUIRE has brought together over 2,300 researchers in the past two years, offering 20 training events and 7 workshops attended by participants from over 70 countries. While in total 44% of these participants have been female, this number reflects the project’s ongoing commitment to gender balance, inclusion and diversity, but also acknowledges that further progress is still desired.
Despite the projects complexity due to high number of partner institutions, several strategies have been implemented to foster inclusion. These include the unique establishment of an independent advisory committee (EDIP), assigning an EDIP member (by rotation) as ex-officio member of Transnational Activity Review Panel (TARP), thinking of strategies to reduce unconscious bias in review of TA applications, setting targets for female participation and researchers from Horizon’s widening countries, offering travel support and affordable accommodation to reduce financial barriers, recording of online training events to enable access and maximise flexibility. Additionally, novel recruitment practices, supportive workplace policies and efforts to increase female representation in leadership roles have been introduced. Geo-INQUIRE also fosters inclusion across a wide range of career backgrounds (including less conventional career paths) and brings together researchers from diverse scientific disciplines—such as solid earth, marine science, and carbon capture and storage - as well as those with technical expertise in IT. Strategies such as seminars have proven effective in bridging these gaps and reducing barriers between different fields. We will present examples of these actions, discuss lessons learned and propose example guidelines for promoting diversity in large-scale research projects.
How to cite: Türker, E., Christadler, I., Cotton, F., Gabriel, A.-A., Jalayer, F., Litwin-Prestes, M., Strollo, A., Weege, S., Kohler, E., Majdański, M., and Sandri, L.: Practical implementation of diversity and inclusion measures in large EU Horizon projects: lessons learned from Geo-INQUIRE., EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-13088, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-13088, 2025.
Addressing under-representation and inequity in geoscience requires action from all participants of the scientific ecosystem. The collaborative and global nature of our science impels us to create systemic changes to better include historically marginalized voices. This work includes correcting the power imbalances that exist within scholarly publishing through equity-focused policy changes and through collaborations with communities. We will highlight AGU Publications’ recently launched Inclusion in Global Research Policy (an authorship policy to improve equity and transparency in international research collaborations and to help address the issue of parachute science), as well as work to create Guidelines for the Governance of Indigenous Data in Scientific Publishing (a partnership between the Collaboratory for Indigenous Data Governance, ENRICH, Te Kotahi Research Institute, the American Geophysical Union, the National Information Standards Organization, and AGU).
How to cite: Dzekon, T., Giampoala, M., Wooden, P., and Ricci, M.: Equity in Geoscience Publishing: Indigenous Data Governance and Tackling Parachute Science, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-12317, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-12317, 2025.
Autism is a lifelong developmental condition which impacts how individuals communicate and interact with the world around them and is simultaneously recognised broadly as a form of neurodivergence and protected legally as a disability (e.g. U.K. Equality Act 2010). Autism frequently remains under-represented and un-disclosed in academia, despite it having no impact on intelligence. In fact, many autistic traits such as problem-solving skills and thinking ‘outside the box’ should be conducive to success in academia.
The field of Geoscience is currently facing significant scrutiny for a lack of diversity. This study contributes to this by investigating the experiences of geoscience students in U.K. higher education, using a novel qualitative methodology designed to be inclusive for autistic participants. Forty self-identified autistic geoscience students took part in semi-structured asynchronous discussions over a period of one month, sharing their self-perceptions, experiences of learning in geoscience, university life, support in higher education, and other issues that they wished to discuss.
Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis, generating three themes: (1) Being me; (2) Interacting with the world around me; (3) Facilitating change. Participants stressed the need to recognise the diversity of autistic experiences, and suggested a number of recommendations that would improve their learning and wider higher education experiences, including training to enhance the fundamental understanding of autistic people. The outcomes of this study can help provide actionable recommendations for educators and institutions to better address the challenges faced by autistic learners. This will ultimately facilitate better inclusivity in geoscience-based higher education and lead to improved success and well-being for autistic people in the geosciences.
How to cite: Jeffery, A., Rogers, S., Jeffery, K., Lucherini, M., Hulme, J., Griffin, M., Derbyshire, E., Wisniewski, K., Pringle, J., Hallam, C., Stemp, I., Lau, L., and Bullock, L.: Autistic Voices in Geoscience: Lessons to enhance inclusive practice, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-6072, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-6072, 2025.
Major sporting events, like the Summer Olympics or the FIFA World Cup, attract a global audience of billions of spectators. While many agree that watching the Olympic Games in one of its venues is the best way to experience the event, less than one per mille of the billions worldwide audience can attend in person. The majority watch such events at public events, at home with families and friends, or by themselves on their mobile devices. All these different modes of watching the Olympics allow a global audience access to a major sporting event.
International research meetings were forced into mainly online modes by the COVID-19 pandemic during 2020-2022. While the availability of online formats was initially high, it has since dropped, and only a small fraction of meeting organisers have made efforts to develop new formats that offer value to online participants. At the same time, the poor quality of virtual options and the “rush back to normal” contributed to a drop in virtual participant numbers. This is a missed opportunity; it disregards the high environmental costs of large international meetings and favours those who can afford the high costs and time commitment of international travel and are, therefore, already advantaged. For many in the Global South, attending international conferences offered as in-person-only events is almost impossible, widening the gap in their ability to participate in global science.
While technologies for alternative modes of participation exist, many organisers of conferences cite the excessive cost and a lack of interest as barriers. Financial modelling by a major conference provider showed that offering alternative participation modes adds approximately five to ten per cent to the cost of running a conference, which can be easily offset by attracting additional participants. However, conflicting aims exist between conference organisers wanting to offer alternative participation modes but also having to be financially sustainable, as well as conference venues and tourism boards, who want to maximise the number of participants on-site. It has been reported that tourism boards and conference venues use subsidies and overpriced equipment to discourage alternatives to on-site participation.
For their 2024 Annual Scientific Meeting, the Astronomical Society of Australia organised an “online-first” conference with a location-specific “Hub Day” during the week to offer space for in-person interactions. As this example shows, there are many opportunities to innovate by blending in-person, hybrid, and online formats and adopting new technologies (see, e.g., https://thefutureofmeetings.wordpress.com), including local or regional hubs where participants can gather to discuss and network. Alternative modes are already being used successfully by communities in other areas of society to bring people together and the scientific community is lagging behind. We could draw inspiration from completely different types of events, like games, international sports or cultural events. This presentation is about how we can make research meetings more accessible, inclusive, and sustainable by being more creative about modes of participation and thinking outside the box.
How to cite: Klump, J., Moss, V., Kobayashi, R., Wyborn, L., Kethers, S., and Siegel, C.: Inclusive scientific meetings need alternative modes of participation, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-7701, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-7701, 2025.
Posters on site: Thu, 1 May, 14:00–15:45 | Hall X1
STEM fields in Europe and across the globe are not balanced in terms of gender, ethnic and racial groups, sexual orientation and other aspects of diversity (e.g. Fry et al. 2021, Freeman 2018). For example, in 2018, women made up over 40% of European academic staff, but in 2019 only 26.2% of full professors were women, less than 25% were heads of institutes, and only 31.1% board members (EC She figures 2021). This under-representation has caused academic institutions to implement new hiring practices, unconscious bias training, and intervention programs (e.g. Palid et al. 2023), as science and innovation thrive on diversity in expertise and experience. However, diversity varies across fields, and understanding field specific data is critical to propose and evaluate effective measures. Here, we wish to look inward and assess our own scientific discipline of computational geodynamics. We specifically use a recurring international conference in our field—now called the Ada Lovelace Workshop on Modelling Mantle and Lithosphere Dynamics—as a proxy for our field. This conference series has taken place in various European countries at a roughly two-year interval since 1987.
For all listed attendees, we have collected gender, year of highest degree obtained, primary country and institute of affiliation at the time of the conference, presentation type and organisational role in the conference based on information available online, such as the workshop program booklets and institute, ORCID, Google Scholar and social media profiles. Using this dataset, we analysed the diversity in gender, career stage and country of affiliation of each conference overall, of the local and science organization committees and of the invited speakers. Based on the available data, we cannot make any inferences about other aspects of diversity.
We show that over the last 38 years, the participation of women has increased from about 10% to about 35%. The percentage of women attendees has increased across all career stages, but fluctuates for established scientists. The number of invited woman speakers has also increased: whereas between 2000 and 2010, three out of the five conferences did not have any woman invitee, from 2015 to 2024, consistently more than 25% of the invited speakers were women. The number of primary countries of affiliation has approximately doubled over three decades. As expected, the majority of attendees work in Europe and a substantial fraction of participants is from North America, but contributions from scientists in Asia and Africa have increased. Given the rate over the last four decades, we project that gender equality in participants will be reached in 2040.
European Commission RTD, She figures 2021—Gender in research and innovation: Statistics and indicators, 2021, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2777/06090.
Freeman, J. (2018). LGBTQ scientists are still left out. Nature 559, 27-28.
Fry, R., Kennedy, B., & Funk, C. (2021). STEM jobs see uneven progress in increasing gender, racial and ethnic diversity. Pew Research Center, 1.
Palid, O., Cashdollar, S., Deangelo, S., Chu, C., & Bates, M. (2023). Inclusion in practice: A systematic review of diversity-focused STEM programming in the United States. Int. J. STEM Educ., 10(1), 2.
How to cite: Dannberg, J., van Zelst, I., Glerum, A., Pusok, A., Crameri, F., and Thieulot, C.: The evolving diversity of the geodynamics community: Ada Lovelace workshop participants from 1987 to 2024, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-5760, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-5760, 2025.
Science Sisters is a YouTube video and seminar series hosted by Dr. Iris van Zelst. Lighthearted in tone, it explores different career paths, academic life, and science communication in the planetary and geosciences. The guests on the show represent a range of role models to celebrate the diversity of people working in STEM. They are interviewed by Iris on their personal experiences on different topics. Past seasons have included topics like ethical fieldwork, switching careers, science communication, postdoc life, leadership, women in science, job applications, postdoc hopping, outreach, publishing, feeling incompetent, astronaut training, toxic academia, and how to build a research group.
We are now proud to announce that the production of season 3 of Science Sisters has wrapped and post-production, such as the editing of the videos, is in full swing. Anticipated to launch in fall 2025, the new season of Science Sisters will consist of the traditional interview videos and a hybrid online seminar where a viewing party of the episode is combined with an after-show discussion between Iris, the guest, and any research groups and individuals interested in joining.
This hybrid form of Science Sisters has proven to kickstart conversations in institutes and increase the cohesion within institutes by creating a more understanding atmosphere. Early career scientists in particular say that Science Sisters is extremely useful to learn about life as a researcher and they enjoy the chatty, entertaining quality of the interviews.
In season 3, the main topics across our 7 episode series are:
• PhD life
• Failure (and how to deal with it)
• Working at NASA
• Motivation (or lack thereof)
• Science management
• Lab work
• Academic motherhood
Of course, each episode also features individual experiences of (non-)academic career paths to show the diversity of ways in which people can interface with science and work in academia.
Using the hybrid form of videos and online webinars, Science Sisters therefore continues to contribute to promoting and supporting inclusivity in the planetary and geosciences.
How to cite: Cano Amoros, M. and van Zelst, I.: A new hybrid video & seminar series: Season 3 of Science Sisters is on its way! , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-6963, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-6963, 2025.
We organized an informal equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) themed reception for the attendees of the European Aerosol Conference (EAC) 2024 to encourage reflection and sharing of both positive and negative behaviors observed in academic workspaces.
The event was held in a private venue near the conference site. The three-hour event featured a combination of short talks, a presentation on current and past EDI initiatives within the Finnish aerosol science community, and informal discussions in small groups. The relaxed setting fostered open dialogue and active participation.
During the event, attendees were invited to anonymously write about their personal experiences at their workspace on sticky notes and attach them to a poster displayed throughout the reception. This interactive approach provided a safe space for participants to voice their thoughts and experiences, which remained visible for collective reflection until the event concluded.
The collected messages were categorized into two main themes. Positive Aspects included respect and inclusion, supportive environments, social connections, and practical guidance. Negative Aspects highlighted challenges such as discrimination, exclusion, judgment, and unproductive atmospheres. Combined insights collected within this activity provide a clear understanding of workplace dynamics, offering valuable perspectives for promoting equity and addressing areas of concern within academic environments.
How to cite: Atashi, N., Hartikainen, A., Salo, L., Ylivinkka, I., Shahzaib, M., Dal Maso, M., and Lauri, K. A.: Positive and Negative Academic Workplace Behaviors: Experiences Gathered at a Scientific Conference, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-9552, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-9552, 2025.
Transition services are essential for supporting students with intellectual disabilities (ID) as they prepare for independent adult lives. While special education teachers in both the United States and Korea acknowledge the importance of providing these systematic services, their actual implementation varies widely due to differing teacher backgrounds and numerous barriers. This study examines these barriers through the lens of Windschitl's framework, which categorizes dilemmas into four types: conceptual, pedagogical, cultural, and political. These dilemmas serve as a foundation for understanding why teachers struggle to implement transition services, even when they recognize their significance.
Focusing on the Korean context, this study explored the experiences of special school teachers working with students with ID and identified additional dilemmas beyond those categorized by Windschitl. To achieve this, qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with 35 special school teachers currently implementing transition services. Using the constant comparative method, the data was analyzed to uncover key categories, their properties, and how these elements interconnect.
The findings revealed that Korean teachers viewed transition services as vital for equipping students with ID with the skills necessary for employment, societal integration, and independence. However, despite understanding their importance, teachers reported low implementation levels due to various challenges. These included limited resources, insufficient professional development, lack of collaboration among stakeholders, and inadequate institutional support.
Rather than placing blame on teachers for the low implementation of transition services, the study emphasizes the need to create supportive environments. Collaborative efforts among school administrators, parents, policymakers, and disability organizations are critical to fostering conditions where teachers can succeed. Furthermore, investing in professional training and strengthening educational and social infrastructure would significantly enhance teachers’ capacity to provide effective transition services.
By addressing these systemic issues, this study underscores the importance of supporting special educators in their efforts to improve outcomes for students with ID, ultimately enabling them to transition successfully into adulthood.
How to cite: park, Y.: Exploring Barriers and Dilemmas in Transition Services: Insights from Korean Special Education Teachers for Students with Intellectual Disabilities, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-10224, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-10224, 2025.
The European Research Council (ERC), Europe’s premier funding agency for frontier research, views equality of opportunities as an essential priority and a vital mission to ensure fairness in the review process. The ERC monitors various demographic data yearly on every call and has taken actions to tackle imbalances and potential implicit and explicit biases.
Demographic gender and geographical distribution data on external reviewers is presented. External reviewers are experts who support ERC evaluation panels by externally reviewing proposals in their fields of specialization. The analysis focuses on the rates of nomination and invitation of these experts, as well as rates of acceptance and completion of the reviews. The data is presented by call and by scientific domain. In the current framework programme (Horizon Europe, 2021-2027), 24% of nominated external reviewers were women, 75% were men and 1% are non-binary. Acceptance and completion rates for men and women are similar.
Furthermore, data on requests of the eligibility window extensions are included. During the grants’ application process, the ERC allows potential grantees to extend the eligibility window, both for Consolidator and Starting Grants. These extensions are conditional on certain circumstances (e.g. parental leave, long-term illness, or clinical training). These circumstances and conditions constantly evolve. In this way, to better comprehend and monitor these requests, the ERC recently started an in-depth analysis of such data, gathered between 2021 and 2024. The data are disaggregated by year, gender, and by grant type. The analysis shows that there is a clear disparity between women researchers and men researchers when requesting extensions; both in terms of numbers and circumstances.
The ERC knows that work to ensure inclusive excellence and equality of opportunities is never-ending. This presentation analyses the institutional efforts, procedures and critically discusses the results.
How to cite: Jesus-Rydin, C., Fariña-Busto, L., Ruiz, M., Le Noir de Carlan, B., and Jansen, E.: Inclusive excellence at the ERC: demographic data on external reviewers and eligibility extensions, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-10372, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-10372, 2025.
Despite the increased awareness towards Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI), the glaciological community still experiences and perpetuates numerous examples of inappropriate and discriminatory behavior, adding to the systemic inequalities embedded in the scientific community. What are the EDI challenges we currently face within the glaciological research community? How can we overcome them? Where do we want our research community to be in fifty years? These questions were used as a starting point for a first-of-its-kind workshop at the 2023 Karthaus Summer School on Ice Sheets and Glaciers in the Climate System. Drawing on the outcomes of that workshop, we discuss the answers and challenges to addressing these questions, in the form of both actionable steps forward and imaginative visions of the future. We identified common threads from the workshop responses and distilled them into collective visions for the future. Having consulted additional literature, while formulating suggestions for improvement, stating our own commitment, and highlighting existing initiatives, contributions to this “time capsule” exercise were sorted into three main challenges we want and need to face: making glaciology more accessible, equitable, and responsible (Nicola et al, in review).
How to cite: Nicola, L., Frøystad, R., Juarez-Martinez, A., Menthon, M., Moraes Luzardi, A. C., Turner, K., Wilson, S. F., and Keisling, B. and the Karthaus 2023 EDI team: An EDI time capsule from the 2023 Karthaus Summer School: Where do we want the glaciological community to be in 50 years?, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-18414, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18414, 2025.
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.
How to cite: Stadmark, J., Montanari, A., and Wingate, L.: Status and Progress of Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity at EGU General Assemblies, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-6932, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-6932, 2025.
For many geoscientists, participating in conferences are vital for their career as they provide access to state-of-the-art knowledge in their research field but also provide opportunities to share their own results whilst expanding their research network.
However, the opportunity to attend large geoscience conferences for many researchers often comes at a significant financial burden. In particular, researchers that have caring responsibilities, disabilities or experience temporary unemployment often find it a financial challenge to cover the extra costs incurred for conference participation from research project budgets or from their affiliated research institutions. This not only places a strain on those geoscientists already facing financial hardship, but it also leads to the exclusion of researchers from career-defining meetings.
In 2025, the EGU launched a new EDI Participation Support Scheme for EGU members with the aim of addressing this inequity. This support scheme aims to provide financial assistance to scientists in the Earth, planetary, and space sciences who encounter significant EDI-related financial barriers that prevent them from participating to the EGU General Assembly because of caregiving responsibilities, disability and special needs as well as temporary geoscience career transitions. In this presentation, we will provide valuable information about this new support scheme and encourage the community to raise awareness of these financial burdens with their colleagues, research institutions and research funders.
How to cite: Wingate, L., Hart, J., Turton, J., and Jacobs, P.: Tackling EDI-related financial barriers that reduce inclusivity at geoscience conferences with the EGU EDI Participation Support Scheme, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-7140, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-7140, 2025.
