Resources

DEI committees tend to consist of those who have suffered most in the system and have the least power to change it. In our experience, and to our knowledge, these are the people who are often tasked with educating their colleagues about DEI as well as being both the architects and figureheads of change. Although flawed, this model is used by universities around the world.

Recently, the Dutch Research Council (NOW) has initiated a new funding instrument “Advancing Equity in Academia through Innovation”. The goal of this instrument is to contribute to equity of underrepresented ethnic groups within academia in the Netherlands and to create a more inclusive cultural climate. 

Funders’ goals for diversity, equity and inclusion are laudable, but they will only be successful if the funders prioritize health disparities research and address biases in the funding application process.

Authors propose that one concrete way to monitor and redress racial and other disparities in funding is to collect and publicize data on grantees by gender, race, ethnicity, and location from neuroscience funding agencies.

In this preprint, authors provide concrete, practical advice to help conference organizers in the microbial sciences design inclusive, safe, and welcoming conferences, where queer and trans microbiologists can flourish.