Pal(a)eo PERCS: A virtual, international seminar featuring Early Career Researchers in Palaeo-sciences

With the onset of COVID-19 shutdowns, many departments have stopped regular seminar series, while conferences and workshops have been canceled or postponed. In addition to the loss of inter-institutional idea sharing and networking, moves into virtual spaces de-emphasise person to person interactions, formal and informal. We created Pal(a)eo PERCS (Paleo EaRly Career Seminars), a weekly global seminar series that features early career researchers (ECRs), to fill this gap. "Pal(a)leo" is a broad term, intersecting many research areas including geosciences, biology, oceanography, and even anthropology. Pal(a)eo PERCS aim to broaden the intellectual frameworks and networks of researchers interested in Earth's past by bringing those working under the "Pal(a)eo" umbrella together, and highlighting diversity in both thought and presenters. Seminars take place on Zoom, featuring a 30 minute talk, Q&A, small-group discussions, and an informal "tea-time" with the speaker. Seminars are open to those from all career stages, but feature ECR speakers specifically: those in the early stages of building their career and networks are some of the hardest hit by COVID-19, especially those on temporary or fixed-term contracts.

Palaeo PERCS is designed with diversity and accessibility in mind. The speaker line-up is curated to include a wide range of demographic and intellectual diversity, with a focus on featuring people from traditionally underrepresented groups in the geosciences. Speakers are encouraged to use closed captioning during their talks and employ colorblind friendly graphics. Participants must agree to a Code of Conduct before joining the mailing list. To accommodate those who are unable to attend a seminar in real-time, most talks are recorded and made available to the email list for a week following the seminar.