Abstract

<p>The Association of Polar Early Career Scientists is an international organization with membership representing 70 countries. Members are mostly graduate students and post-docs, though 29% are early career professionals in other polar-related career tracks. A survey was sent in summer 2019 to APECS members and polar science community members asking about travel support needs and how respondents’ recent travel was funded. Participants described the perceived availability of different types and sources of travel funding. Availability of travel awards and the expectation that early career researchers would pay for their meeting-related travel out of personal funds varies widely between countries, career stage and indigenous status. Substantially higher travel support is often needed to support participants from countries outside the US, Canada, and Northern Europe because of both the higher cost of traveling to typical meeting destinations coupled with lower availability of supplemental or full travel support. This presentation will cover the international patterns in early career travel funding, the utility of travel advances and the importance of making funding decisions eaerly enough for ECRs as a way to promote diversity in polar sciences.</p>

Highlights

  • In order to make progress in their fields, early career researchers (ECRs) must attend scientific meetings

  • This study investigates the funding-related factors that could make professional travel more difficult for early career researchers in some demographic areas: the differing funding landscape for Arctic Indigenous peoples and residents, and geographic and international variability in travel support relative to costs

  • Key results from the survey data fell under a few categories: the frequency with which different groups of ECRs traveled for various research-related events, the cost per trip and the associated factors, how those trips were funded, features of travel funding including partial support and travel advances, and what expenses are covered for different groups

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Summary

Introduction

In order to make progress in their fields, early career researchers (ECRs) must attend scientific meetings. In highly international fields like polar sciences, attending these meetings and workshops can require extensive travel: for example, in November 2019, 11 meetings or conferences took place in eight countries for Arctic work alone (ARCUS, 2019) This costs money: travel funding support is required for early career researchers to make progress in their respective careers. A major theme of the “Bridging the Poles: Education Linked with Research” workshop (Pfirman, 2004) was engaging diverse communities in polar science, and workshop reports emphasized the need for increased efforts to include Arctic Natives and residents, minorities, gender diversity, along with geographic, socioeconomic, and international diversity These concerns have not changed in the intervening fifteen years: diversity in polar science remains an issue to this day (Gewin, 2019). Attending meetings and workshops is an important scientific activity for disseminating information, building networks, and for getting credit for contributions to scientific understanding

Travel in a scientific career
Paying for travel
Survey
Survey questions
Survey responses
Survey Analysis
Results
Number of trips
Scientific conferences
Field work
Workshops and small meetings
Polar science community meetings
Career development
Field schools
Other events
Cost per trip
Regional variability in travel costs
Distance traveled
Didn’t attend because of cost
Where did the funding come from?
Research grant funding
Event-based support
Organizational roles
Use of personal funds
Utility of partial travel funding
Necessity of a travel advance
Covered Expenses
Conclusions
Full Text
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