2024 Advancing IDEA in Planetary Science Conference

The LPI’s 2024 Advancing IDEA in Planetary Science conference aims to boost the community’s momentum in incorporating Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) principles in the workforce. NASA and other planetary science stakeholders have committed to fostering IDEA principles throughout their agencies and funded programs. The LPI’s Expanding NASA’s Community of Planetary Sample Scientists (ENComPSS) program is supporting this virtual conference as a next step, building upon the 2022 Advancing IDEA in Planetary Science conference.We encourage participants from the 2022 conference to provide updates on the progress that has been made in the past two years.

Conference Goals

• Enable the planetary community to discuss the progress, challenges, obstacles, and successes in incorporating IDEA principles in the planetary workforce.
• Determine how changes in the cultural and political landscape, workforce, and missions have already and may impact future IDEA efforts.
• Develop a plan incorporating actionable steps, mechanisms, and metrics that need to be put in place to move forward with advancing IDEA in planetary science.
• Share the key findings from the conference with the planetary science stakeholders and the broader planetary community.

Conference Scope

The conference will facilitate conversations and develop recommendations centered around the core principles of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility. We invite abstract submissions that help to address these issues such as:

• Inclusion - work that discusses evidence-based practices to create and sustain inclusive work environments
• Diversity - abstracts that review the current state of the profession at all career levels and those that make recommendations on the best practices to assess the field’s demographics
• Equity - work that identifies opportunity gaps faced by members of the community and mechanisms to bridge those gaps, to create, and sustain an equitable system
• Accessibility - abstracts discussing best practices for making activities in the workforce accessible to all in the community

Additionally, we encourage abstracts at the intersection of IDEA core principles, such as those presenting proposed IDEA activities for missions and those reviewing lessons learned and best practices– from planetary science and astrobiology adjacent fields across people employed at universities, NASA Centers, research facilities, commercial space industries, and international partnerships. In particular, we encourage abstracts and attendance from graduate students and early career scientists, and members of the social sciences and education research communities whose research and insights can improve the state of the planetary science and astrobiology community.

Code of Conduct

USRA/LPI is committed to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, age, race, religion, or other protected status. We do not tolerate harassment of meeting participants in any form. USRA/LPI expects that all participants will abide by this Code of Conduct, creating an environment free from harassment, discrimination, disruption, incivility, or violence of any kind. We expect participants to exercise consideration and respect in their speech and actions and refrain from demeaning, discriminatory, or harassing behavior. Report issues, concerns, or violations of this Code of Conduct directly to USRA/LPI management at USRA-LPI Meetings Code of Conduct. The full USRA/LPI Code of Conduct can be found here.