Back in March of 2023, I facilitated an online panel discussion on ‘helicopter science’: what it is, where it commonly arises, and how we might prevent it from happening. The event was hosted jointly by the Conservation Ecology Special Interest Group and Policy Team of the British Ecological Society (BES), after the two groups started to consider how they could better support equitable and inclusive ecological research happening across Majority (Global South) and Minority World (Global North) countries. The international panel (pictured below) kindly gave 90 minutes of their time to discuss this challenging topic. And we barely scratched the surface. If you’d like to read more about what we discussed, the Relational Thinking blog (associated with the journal, People and Nature) has just published our summary piece on the event. I will be co-running a workshop on the theme of equitable international fieldwork at the BES Annual Meeting in December, to provide an opportunity for more discussions, and to motivate action.