Participation Trends and Geographical Diversity in Earth and Space Science

The EU-funded Europlanet 2024 Research Infrastructure (RI) project, together with the Europlanet Society, aims to build a diverse and inclusive European – and global – network of planetary scientists and space industry participants. It focuses on raising awareness of the existing prejudices and convinces decision-makers that the European planetary community can be more effective if we include people from the under-represented states better. This inclusion leads to more effective collaborations, a higher level of motivation and a wider range of viewpoints.

However, the global difficulties of the last few years are also strongly reflected in this area. The issue for the entire Europlanet community is that many conferences have been cancelled, the resources have dwindled and the opportunities seem to be shrinking – the under-represented states and their institutes are even more affected. The Widening Participation Task of Europlanet 2024 RI aims to proactively raise awareness and facilitate cooperation with individuals and institutions from under-represented states through workshops and meetings. But without workshops and meetings the options are very limited, new solutions need to be found.

Trends in participation data amid the aforementioned challenges have been analyzed. Data of geoscience (EGU, IUGG), planetary (EPSC) and solar-terrestrial science conferences (ESWW, ESPM) are investigated. The aim of this study is to better understand the situation and find the most appropriate response. Particular attention is paid to early career researchers, whose position seems to have improved in recent years.

Europlanet 2024 RI has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 871149.