Evaluating features of scientific conferences: A call for improvements

Sarvenaz Sarabipour; Benjamin Schwessinger; Fiona N. Mumoki; Aneth D. Mwakilili; Aziz Khan; Humberto J. Debat; Pablo J. Sáez; Samantha Seah; Tomislav Mestrovic

Unlike long-distance flying which results in emissions of hundreds to thousands of kg of CO2, ground-based transportation produces lower CO2 emissions (Table S8) . For example, traveling 40 miles to a regional conference results in emission of 20 kg of CO2. Thus where feasible, public or shared transportation options such as the bus or train should be used instead of a car or plane (49) . To reduce costs and travel carbon footprint, funding agencies and scientific societies need to fund and incentivize less frequent (for instance biennial) smaller regional meetings held by specialized scientific societies with only a few hundred attendees (e.g. American Physical Society regional meetings) in favor of large national and international ones which involve flying. The smaller size of these events enables attendees to interact and discuss science in ways that provide ECRs with ample opportunities to exchange ideas and meet established researchers. These meetings can be live streamed, recorded and made available globally via digital libraries for the benefit of other researchers. Furthermore, a number of small regional and virtual meetings can be funded by public and private research funders such as the UK Wellcome Trust or the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF) via designated grants (NIH R13/U13 or NSF RCN grants supporting scientific meetings) which conference chairs apply for in order to fund the meeting (50, 51) . Large conferences are often hosted in expensive cities as there are many accommodation options for large crowds, while conferences in more affordable locations are typically smaller in size. Regional society meetings can provide many benefits, such as low hosting costs. Conferences held in more economic and public venues, schools or university campuses, may also offer attendees the opportunity to visit local labs, tour facilities, and interact with the local scientific communities at the venue, potentially bringing benefit to the local community (Box 1).