Survey reveals strong demand for family-friendly conference support among geoscientists, indicating practical adjustments can enhance equity and inclusion.
Key Points
To evaluate the support required by parent researchers at scientific conferences and assess the acceptance of family-friendly initiatives among researchers without children.
Conducted an online survey among geoscientific researchers, primarily located in Europe.
Assessed parental support needs and surveyed non-parent attitudes toward institutional family-support initiatives at academic conferences.
Parents reported a strong need for enhanced conference support, ranging from logistical transparency to on-site childcare and financial assistance.
The majority of researchers without children expressed broad support for implementing family-friendly measures at conferences.
Identified practical, small-scale organizational adjustments to mitigate work-family conflict and counter the leaky pipeline in academic careers.