Description
We present the results of the 2023 survey of the demographics and research interests of the UK astronomy and geophysics research community, offering a unique insight into the composition of this workforce. This is the most recent in a series of surveys commissioned by the Royal Astronomical Society dating back to 1988 and is the most recent of the three surveys which have sought detailed demographic data, collected in this case after Brexit and the height of the Covid pandemic.
The survey encompasses the various protected characteristics of researchers, the ways in which employees and postgraduate students use their time, both in research and in other areas such as outreach and administration, the research interests and major instruments used by respondents, and gives us information on the career intentions of early career researchers.
Results indicate persistent challenges for our efforts to develop a workforce that reflects the balance of wider society, something that remains of great importance to the UK, even as it is undermined across the Atlantic, and how that workforce can be productive. We will consider how these findings should shape the priorities of the RAS, and what practical steps our organisation, and the wider scientific community, should take in the years ahead.
