What is our goal?
Our goal is simple: make Earth Science research safe, diverse, and welcoming for everyone. Yes, everyone! The VU Amsterdam survey from 2022 on subjects related to social safety was a wake-up call for our department and the grassroots birth of the EDI committee to start the necessary actions. It is a simple yet important goal that will ultimately improve scientists' well-being as well as scientific outputs.
What do we do? Which topics do we cover?
The EDI committee organizes activities on a wide range of topics that get us closer and closer to our goal. One of our core principles is that EDI values go beyond the (yet unsolved) male-female gaps, as reflected by the variety of content of our activities listed below. We want to provide space, time, and resources for those important and needed debates within the scientific community.
Previous activities:
- Film projection of Picture a Scientist, followed by an interactive debate (January 2023)
- Collaboration (or not?) with fossil fuel industries (January 2023)
- Fieldwork safety - Invited speaker Ana Cassanti (March 2023)
- Bystander training specifically for Early Career Researchers of the department (~80% participation!) (April 2023)
- Genders, what are they, and what are the best ways to address them? (June 2023)
- Psychology of unwelcomed behaviours (January 2024)
- Towards inclusive PhD supervision: where do we stand and where do we want to go? (April 2024)
- Work-life balance (May 2024)
- Impact of the reorganization on the PhDs and post-docs (October 2024)
- Academic leadership (December 2024)
- Diversity Fresco: workshop tool to raise awareness about discrimination and inclusion (January 2025)
- World inequalities and climate (in)justice – workshop at NWO NAC (March 2025)
Planned activities:
- Earth Sciences for All”: Full-day event about EDI on Earth Sciences (14 October 2025)
How do we do it?
We diversify the formats of the sessions as well. The topics can be covered with movies, short videos, interactive debates, invited speakers, training, etc. Creativity is part of the challenge to make EDI values attractive.
A tool we particularly like using is the mentimeter (https://www.mentimeter.com/) because it allows us to create a safe space where people can anonymously share their thoughts and experiences, which often are food for thought.
Who are we?
We are an open committee! You are more than welcome to join us or give us ideas of formats and topics you would like to see covered!
