Family-Friendly Conferences in the Geosciences

This project started in April 2023 and was initiated at the Department of Geosciences at the University of Bonn. With a duration of one and a half years the project is funded by the Gleichstellungsbüro (Office for Equal Opportunities) of the University. The project is led by Leonie Esters, Lisa Schielicke and Elena Päffgen.

What is our goal?

The goal of this project is to determine how we can make conference participation easier for parents and families.To achieve this, the needs and desires of scientists, especially parents, are collected through surveys and discussions, and interviews are conducted with conference organizers. The results are subsequently documented in a scientific publication. This publication is intended to serve as a guide for conference organizers, bringing attention to the challenges and desires of parents. The project promotes exchange between conference organizers and parents, as well as among parents in the field of science.

Why?

Participation in (inter)national conferences, seminars, and workshops is important for professional exchange and personal networking, especially for young scientists. The project aims to contribute to a better balance between family life and scientific work. Since caregiving responsibilities in families are still predominantly carried by women, this project also seeks to promote gender equality in the field of geosciences.

For more detailed information about this project, you can refer to the project proposal (unfortunately only in german), which you can download below. If you have any questions, ideas, or requests of any kind, feel free to send us an email! Our contact details can be found at the bottom of this page.

Project Proposal (in german)

Event Information

Participate in the Parenting & Fieldwork Survey! The ICEBERG project is looking for participants for a survey to explore the intersection of parenting and fieldwork experiences. The survey is open to all parents who have conducted fieldwork, either currently or in the past.

On May 26 and May 27, this years Diversity Days with the title 'Family Matters: Balance & Belonging' take place at the University of Bonn. You can find more information here.

Handout

for all Members of the University of Bonn

This handout provides an overview of the family-friendly services at the University of Bonn, as well as a list of relevant contact and advisory services. For up-to-date information, please visit the websites of the Family Office and the Equal Opportunity Office of the University of Bonn.

Handout

New

Our publication was submitted to the Journal of Geoscience Communication and can now be found on the EGUsphere preprint server. It is open for discussion:

Päffgen, E., Schielicke, L., and Esters, L.: Towards family-friendly conferences in the geosciences: results from a first survey, EGUsphere [preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1200, 2025.

Eine Wissenschaftlerin und ein Wissenschaftler arbeiten hinter einer Glasfassade und mischen Chemikalien mit Großgeräten.

1. Which Offers are Needed?

Here you can find the scientific results of the conducted surveys, interviews and research.

Here

2. Which Conferences are Family-Friendly?

Here, you will find information about the family-friendly amenities at upcoming geoscience conferences and guidance on how to get in touch with conference organizers.

Here

3. What can Organizers of Conferences do?

Are you organizing a conference yourself? In this publication you can find a guide for helpful measures to support families at your event.

Here

News

Welcome to the new parent-child office of the Meteorological Institute!

All information about the parent-child room such as equipment, booking etc. can be found here.

Other Initiatives

For questions regarding support for families at the University of Bonn, you can contact the Family Office or the Equality Office of the university. Here, you will find changing-table facilities and the locations of parent-child rooms in Bonn. Additionally, for female scientists at the University of Bonn, there is the WHATSUB network for mutual exchange.

Survey

We have designed two surveys to find out which measures make conferences and workshops more family-friendly. At the same time it is our priority to ensure that our plans do not negatively affect the experience of participants without children. Any person working in the geosciences was invited to take part in our surveys.

If you want to read more about the serveys, visit our EGU Blog Post.