We are writing as chairs of the Gender and Feminist Geographies Research Group (GFGRG) and the Developing Areas Research Group (DARG) of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) (RGS-IBG). Currently, we are working together to improve support for those in academia with caring responsibilities.
The first strand of this work involves developing best practice guidelines for better supporting the research projects and fieldwork of those with care responsibilities. A second strand involves understanding and addressing the challenges of early career researchers taking parental or adoption leave. As part of this work, we are asking for your help in two ways. First, please could you let us know your own experiences of managing the parental/adoption leave of early career researchers and researchers funded by external/project grants, for example in terms of the impacts this has on research projects or on the intellectual work of the department? We are particularly interested to hear if the practices and policies of different funders have affected your ability to manage parental/adoption leave for staff. Second, please could you share the attached survey with your research staff (post doctoral researchers or any other contract researchers), so we can let them know about our work and ensure their input?
The survey link is here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/H9LDG2S
More information about this work is on our websites and will be presented at the 2019 RGS-IBG Annual Conference, London (for example, at our respective AGMs). However, if you have any questions please contact Professor Rosie Cox (r.cox@bbk.ac.uk) or Dr Jessica Hope (jessica.hope@bristol.ac.uk) directly.