The Challenger Society Equity, Diversity, Inclusivity and Accessibility working group initiated an Unlearning Racism in Geoscience (URGE; https://urgeoscience.org/) discussion pod in June 2023. This was motivated by an acknowledgement that those from diverse ethnic groups are severely underrepresented within the Society and marine science in general, especially beyond the undergraduate level.

What is an URGE Pod?
The URGE pod is a monthly journal club which focuses on learning about race and racism in geosciences by reading mostly academic literature and listening to experts and personal experiences. The pod met online for nine months to discuss a range of topics beginning with understanding the many facets of racism and how it manifests in academia, to learning about schemes that were successful in improving the representation of historically underrepresented groups within the geosciences. 

Challenger URGE Pod
The pod met online for nine months to discuss a range of topics beginning with understanding the many facets of racism and how it manifests in academia, to learning about schemes that were successful in improving the representation of historically underrepresented groups within the geosciences. Each month the pod worked towards an implementable policy deliverable (often in collaboration with the Challenger EDIA group) that should lead to actionable progress in improving the representation, experience and retention of underrepresented ethnic groups within marine science in the UK. We produced deliverables relevant to UK marine science which included a code of conduct for Challenger conferences, including an anonymous reporting form, a fieldwork inclusivity strategy, and several sets of compiled and synthesised resources and recommendations focused on topics such as hiring practices.

Deliverables
Session 1: Group Norms and Pod Guidelines 
Session 2: Code of Conduct for Meetings and Reporting Form
Session 3: Demographic data for the Challenger Society (long-term goal as part of the Challenger strategy)
Session 4 and 6: Fieldwork inclusivity plan and guidance with a section focused on working with communities of colour (ongoing)
Session 5: Recommendations for hiring and recruitment practices in UK marine science (ongoing)
Session 7: UK focused resource map (ongoing)
Session 8: Dissemination plan (complete)