Exploring the diversity within EANA and AbGradE as mirror of the European astrobiology community

The European Astrobiology Network Association (EANA) was founded in Spring 2001 during the first European workshop on Astrobiology co-organized with ESA at the ESRIN research facility in Frascati, Italy. Since then, EANA has organized annual meetings to continue fostering and strengthening the Astrobiology community within Europe, whose growth over the years is reflected not only in the growing participation at the annual EANA meeting, but also in the foundation of the graduate network AbGradE (Astrobiology Graduates in Europe) with many activities, meetings, and workshops organized since 2014, including several joint events with EPEC, the EuroPlanet Early Career network, as well as the foundation of the European Astrobiology Institute (EAI) in 2019.

 

While the EAI brings together European research institutions with interest in Astrobiology to act as a joint consortium for research, dissemination, training, and outreach in Astrobiology, EANA instead acts as a network of networks and individuals, which is also reflected in the management of EANA. The EANA Executive Council consists of national representatives from 21 European (and affiliated) countries with active Astrobiology groups, networks, or societies. These national members are designated after consultation with institutional bodies supporting Astrobiology in the country concerned. In addition, the Council consists of elected members in a number equal to the number of active nations. These Councillors are elected by the EANA community and serve for three years.

 

Due to this special structure of the EANA Executive Council, a broad and diverse representation of many nationalities including underrepresented countries is ensured. In addition, EANA always has focused especially on supporting the early-career community with different support structures and activities. This, together with the support of the EAI during the recent years, led to an ever-growing AbGradE network spanning by now far beyond European borders and celebrating its ten-year anniversary this year. In addition, the pandemic allowed us to explore additional virtual tools to connect our community and to grow beyond Europe.

 

It is therefore time to explore and evaluate the diversity that the EANA and AbGradE networks have reached over the past decades with respect to nationality, gender, and career status of our members and annual meeting participants, depending also on where within Europe meetings were organized, and to reflect on future measures to improve the diversity and inclusiveness of our networks.