Geoscientist Online

Diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) are among the values set out in the Society’s 10-year strategy, writes George Jameson*.

The Society was a founding signatory to the Science Council’s Declaration on DEI in October 2014, marking its commitment to ensuring that Earth science is open to all, and allowing everyone the opportunity to be part of our community.

With this in mind, we will regularly be updating Fellows on recent activities in this area.  Recent highlights include:

• A collective benchmarking exercise, developed by the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Science Council, to assess, track and plan progress on DEI across professional science and engineering bodies.
• Hosting our first workshop to offer support to university Earth science departments working towards obtaining or renewing an Athena SWAN award, which recognises advancement of gender equality and other aspects of diversity – something we will repeat in 2018.
• The International Association for Geoscience Diversity (IAGD) became an ‘Associated Society’ of the Geological Society in September 2017. We are planning further shared activity to make Earth science accessible to people with disabilities.

If you would like to share views and suggestions relating to DEI in Earth science, please contact us at E: [email protected].  

*George Jameson is a Society External Relations Officer