This week we are reporting the findings of the Equator project starting with the NERC science knowledge exchange webinar. To coincide, we have released resources and materials communicating project reflections and recommendations. If you care about equity in postgraduate research, read on...
Reproduced with permission from a Twitter thread by Equator PI Dr Natasha Dowey
#EDI #Equity #Inclusion #Diversity #Equality #NERCScience #Geoscience #Geology #Geography #EnvironmentalScience #EarthScience
We focussed GEES due to particularly low diversity and discipline-specific hostile environments in these subjects. Find out more in papers by Dutt, Bernard & Cooperdock, and the Equator team's 2021 comment https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-021-00737-w
Equator was novel in that it was student-perspectives led - by our team of recent Phd graduates - and co-created by a diverse steering committee that included grassroots organisations, students, academics, public sector, doctoral trainers, and professional bodies
Geoscientists will play key roles in the grand challenges of the twenty-first century, but this requires our field to address its past when it comes to diversity and inclusion. Considering the bleak picture of racial diversity in the UK, we put forward steps institutions can take to break down barriers and make the geosciences equitable.
Our key learning? That collaboratively-created, fully-funded, discipline-specific, ring-fenced, inclusively-designed interventions WORK.
We have created 'how to' guides for (1) anyone wanting to create their own interventions to improve access into postgraduate research and (2) those involved in doctoral training programs and PhD recruitment, to make doctoral recruitment more equitable.
Both available here, with infographic summaries https://equatorresearchgroup.wordpress.com/equatorresources/
Three of our participants in Equator wrote about their experiences. Their reflections are striking.
If you want to hear directly from some of our fantastic Research School participants, check out this @GeoForTheFuture blog by Marissa Lo, Jordan Blanchard-Lafayette and Aqil Rashid
https://geoscienceforthefuture.com/experiences-from-the-equator-research-school/
There is need for investment in coordinated, funded, ring-fenced programmes to improve equity in research, along the pipeline, that join up holistically to be as impactful as possible- that build trust & work with, & remunerate, stakeholder communities.
We need to remove inequity at all levels of research, both within and outside of academia. We need funders and leaders to engage with EDI specialists & communities to fund, promote, support & disseminate anti-discriminatory best practise
Rebecca Williams
