Geomorphology—the study of how landscapes form and change—is losing talented researchers from underrepresented groups at critical career junctures, and this project will map exactly where and why those losses happen. The problem is well documented: a “leaky pipeline” drains diversity from Earth and environmental sciences, with certain groups disproportionately struggling to enter or advance. But most efforts to fix it have focused narrowly on people following a traditional academic path. This ignores the fact that tackling environmental challenges requires a much broader ecosystem—including government agencies, NGOs, industry, and professional practice. COALESCE will examine two specific pinch points: PhD graduates deciding whether to stay in academia or leave, and mid-career professionals trying to move between academic and non-academic roles. The researchers will analyse how barriers differ by gender, ethnicity, disability, and other characteristics. If successful, the project will produce practical resources and interventions that universities, research institutes, and environmental organisations can use to remove those barriers. The immediate impact is on the research community itself—making environmental science more diverse, which in turn brings different perspectives and problem-solving approaches to managing the planet sustainably. This is fundamental social science aimed at fixing how research is done, not at a specific technology or product.
View original technical description
Working in partnership, the COALESCE: reCOgnising and enAbLing divErse reSearCh in gEomorphology project aims to analyse the pathways, leaks, barriers, opportunities and lived-experiences across key pinch points through the broad geomorphological research-innovation ecosystem. By doing this we will assess the potential to increase, support and sustain a diverse community considering a broader research and innovation ecosystem. Diversity in the pool of those addressing the Earth’s environmental challenges is crucial to manage our planet sustainably, to provide different perspectives, knowledge bases, experiences and problem-solving approaches. Despite this, there is a lack of diversity in Earth and Environmental Sciences because of challenges that disproportionately affect certain groups of people both entering and progressing in environmental research; the well documented “leaky pipeline”. Within academia, work trying to understand and ‘fix’ the leaky pipeline has placed particular emphasis on people following a ‘typical’ academic pathway despite the growing recognition that addressing Earth’s environmental challenges requires an integrated research-innovation ecosystem of which academia is only one part. To truly open-up environmental science we must look beyond the academic pipeline to the broader group of people working to deliver on NERC’s remit, but based in Governmental and Non-Governmental Organisations, industry, and professional practice. In contrast to much of the work done to date, the COALESCE project seeks to better understand the challenges and barriers to mobility that cause leaks cross the environmental science research and innovation ecosystem. Crucially, COALESCE will address the interchange between academic and non-academic pathways and progression, and develop interventions that build on existing good practice to challenge identified problems and enable positive change. We have identified two important points where greater understanding of flows, leaks, barriers, opportunities and lived-experiences is needed to drive diversity and open the environmental science research-innovation ecosystem: (1) at the pinch-point where doctoral researchers are seeking employment inside or outside of academia upon completion of their PhD; and (2) at points in the careers of academic and non-academics when they are trying to move, in one direction or the other, between academic and other professional roles in the ecosystem. Our vision is to unlock new understanding of progression enablers in including those associated with academic/non-academic exchange, understand how these differ by gender, race/ethnicity, disability and other protected characteristics, and enable sharing of what we learn by developing resources and interventions that will help organisations address identified problems.
Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.
Is something wrong? Let us know