Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity (EDI) is now a common phrase across the academic community and is a key focus for many institutions and professional bodies. The British Geophysical Association (BGA) is a Joint Association of the Geological Society of London (GSL) and the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) that aims to promote the subject of geophysics, and to strengthen the relationship between geology and geophysics in the UK. As such, engagement with all members of the geophysics community is integral to our purpose, and we recognise that the Earth Sciences in general are one of the least diverse STEM subjects. In 2021 the BGA produced an initial report on community representation and diversity within UK geophysics. One of the key recommendations of this report was to appoint an EDI officer to the BGA Committee.

In 2023 the BGA appointed a committee member to the new role of EDI officer, with the remit of supporting and advancing the cause of underrepresented groups in the British Geophysics community. BGA is now working to build EDI into the planning and operation of regular activities. We want consideration of how to make all members of our community feel welcome and included to be standard practice in everything we do.

The first step in this journey was taken through one of BGA’s key activities – running the annual Post-Graduate Research in Progress Meeting (PGRiP). For this meeting, BGA provides funding and support to the student-led organising committee. In 2023, PGRiP committee members worked with the BGA EDI officer to consider how the meeting could be made welcoming and accessible to all attendees. The results of this was published in a recent Astronomy and Geophysics paper “Learning to be Accessible“.

All meetings now run by or financially supported by BGA grants are required to be accessible and inclusive to scientists of all backgrounds. If  a meeting benefits from BGA funding,  EDI issues should be considered throughout the planning process and conference itself. The BGA recognises that organising conferences can be a lot of work and some organisers may not feel they have adequate knowledge of EDI issues to fully address this. For this reason, the BGA has developed the guidelines and templates outlining EDI issues that must be considered at BGA sponsored events to make this as straightforward as possible. Conference organisers will be expected to demonstrate consideration of the following guidelines to the BGA EDI officer on request, though we recognise that some points will be dependent on logistical and/or budgetary constraints.

A decline in the number of students on undergraduate geophysics courses has led to several course closures, despite the subject’s continued relevance and demand for graduate geophysicists from industry. Why is this happening and what can be done about it? The British Geophysical Association set out to explore the reasons for this trend through a series of questionnaires aimed at stakeholders along the educational pipeline, from high-school pupils, undergraduates, geophysics graduates, universities and employers. Recently, the BGA published an Astronomy & Geophysics paper where they lay out our initial findings and recommendations for how our community can tackle this issue. A possible route forward is to reach out to potential students, beyond those who have already heard of geophysics. This can be achieved through visiting schools and teaching conferences, reaching out to major educational groups, working with university marketing teams and to get industry engagement that will help to raise awareness of career options and contributing to work placement schemes.

In some cases the BGA can help to resolve issues that arise between postgraduate students and members of staff. Unless the situation doesn’t permit, these should always be addressed through formal channels within the university before the BGA will intervene. If you would like to discuss this further, please contact the BGA Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity Officer, or the President of the BGA.

The RAS launched a best practice guide for inclusion-related activities in Astronomy and Geophysics. You can find this guide here. It contains a number of suggestions for promoting inclusion, through lenses including policy, HR, and training and is designed for community use by individuals at all levels of seniority.