Building a more inclusive research environment: reflections from the Earth Sciences For All event.

To foster dialogue and exchange experiences on the matter of equality, diversity, and inclusion within the Earth and Environmental Sciences community in the Netherlands, we (the EDI Committee of the Earth Sciences Department at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) organized the first Earth Sciences for All (ESFA) event. Our EDI Committee is a grassroots initiative formed in 2022 following worrying survey results that highlighted well-being and social safety concerns within our department. Since the founding of the EDI Committee, we have promoted fieldwork safety, (trans)gender safety, inclusivity, decolonising science, and  provided active bystander training with the aim to establish a more equitable work environment. 

The ESFA event brought together scientists from diverse scientific disciplines, backgrounds and career stages. The programme featured an interactive keynote lecture on decolonizing Earth and Environmental Sciences (titled: “Rationality, relations, and power: the other side of boundaries”), a panel discussion on effective engagement in EDI initiatives, and interactive workshops on improving fieldwork safety, intersectionality, and creating structural change. Throughout the event, we actively collected insights, experiences, and anonymised data from participants during the discussions and workshops. Here, we reflect on the lessons learned during the ESFA event and the challenges faced in building tangible strategies for more inclusive academic and professional research environments. The lessons learned from the ESFA event serve as a foundation for developing practical, community-informed strategies to make Earth and Environmental Sciences more inclusive for all.