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Disproportionate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on early career researchers and disabled researchers in volcanology

Man Mei Chim1, Elena C. Maters1, Julie Morin2, Janine L. Kavanagh3, Amy Donovan2, Thomas J. Aubry4, Anja Schmidt1,5,6

  • Affiliations: - 1Centre for Atmospheric Science, Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom - 2Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom - 3Department of Earth, Ocean and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom - 4Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom - 5German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IPA), Weßling, Germany - 6Meteorological Institute, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany

  • Presentation type: Talk [Invited]

  • Presentation time: Thursday 15:45 - 16:00, Room R290

  • Programme No: 7.3.1

  • Theme 7 > Session 3

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges to researchers worldwide, and extensive studies have demonstrated that its impacts since March 2020 have been unequal. In 2023, as we navigate the post-pandemic times, questions persist regarding potential disparities and enduring effects faced by volcanology researchers, whose activities range from field work in remote areas to laboratory experiments and numerical modelling. In this study, we explore the multifaceted impacts of the pandemic on volcanology researchers through an online survey distributed globally from January to March 2023. Our survey findings reveal that a considerable fraction of volcanology researchers (44%--62%) face longer-term challenges from the pandemic that continue to impact their research, with a notably higher proportion among early career researchers (62%) and researchers with disabilities (76%). In addition, over half (52%) of all surveyed researchers indicated that they had left or considered leaving academia due to pandemic-related factors. A significantly higher proportion of disabled researchers (56%--70%) had left or considered leaving academia compared to researchers without disabilities (42%). Our findings underscore the pandemic's long-lasting and disproportionate impacts on early career and disabled volcanology researchers. We emphasis the need for concerted efforts by research organisations and funding bodies to mitigate the pandemic's enduring impacts, and stress the importance of making conferences accessible to support disabled researchers' participation. As the pandemic's long-lasting impacts ripple across the broader scientific community, the insights from this research can be used for fostering equitable practices and shaping policies beyond volcanology to other research disciplines.