Broadening participation of underrepresented groups in STEM through the virtual components of the 2021 Annual Meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology

科学会议对于科学家了解其领域的最新研究和形成研究合作至关重要。会议对于研究生和博士后等早期职业科学家来说尤其重要，可以发展他们的专业网络，并将自己确立为科学界的成员。鉴于对早期职业研究人员的重要性，会议也是将代表性不足的群体成员带入科学企业的重要门户。COVID-19大流行导致许多科学学会转向虚拟会议，综合与比较生物学学会（SICB）将于2021年1月和2月举行虚拟科学会议。该项目的重点是从SICB 2021虚拟会议的科学代表性不足的群体中招募参与者，提供一个欢迎和包容的虚拟会议环境，支持多样性和包容性研讨会，并评估SICB 2021会议在多大程度上实现了创造包容性气候和扩大参与的目标。该项目的智力价值是为扩大参与，创造一个包容性的气候，并评估虚拟科学会议的成功扩大参与综合有机生物学领域的新方法。更广泛的影响将是增加科学家的数量，目前在科学，技术，工程和数学中代表性不足的群体。综合和比较生物学学会（SICB）是一个综合性的科学学会，用于综合有机生物学研究。鉴于2019冠状病毒病疫情，上海国际商业银行计划于2021年1月及2月举行2021年上海国际商业银行虚拟年会。SICB努力开发创新的在线提供科学内容、网络机会和扩大参与的方法，这些努力可能会转移到其他科学协会。因此，该项目的主要目标是对新的会议形式的有效性进行正式评估，以便在今后的统计信息系统协调局会议中重新使用，并向其他科学学会传播。SICB将在2021年春季和夏季与综合生物生物学领域的其他科学学会进行接触，以提供复制会议评估的机会。评估将包括一个形成性计划，重点是会议的过程，如整体计划的质量，对会议产品的满意度，以及沟通机制。总结性评估将侧重于短期和中期影响，例如2021年SICB年会参与的多样性，参与会议的人的包容性和同志情谊，以及SICB领导层中多元化代表性的扩大。该项目的智力价值是开发和评估创新和包容性的虚拟科学会议形式，更广泛的影响是通过增加来自代表性不足群体的科学、技术、工程和数学专业人员的人数来扩大参与，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的学术价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

Scientific conferences are essential for scientists to learn about the most current research in their fields and for forming research collaborations. Conferences are particularly important for early-career scientists, such as graduate students and postdocs, to develop their professional networks and to establish themselves as members of the scientific community. Given the importance for early-career researchers, conferences are also important gateways for bringing members of underrepresented groups into the scientific enterprise. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many scientific societies to convert to virtual conferences, and the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) will hold a virtual scientific meeting in January and February 2021. This project focuses on recruiting participants from groups underrepresented in science for the SICB 2021 virtual meeting, providing a welcoming and inclusive virtual meeting environment, supporting diversity and inclusion workshops, and evaluating to what extent the goals of creating an inclusive climate and broadening participation were met by the SICB 2021 conference. The intellectual merit of this project is to contribute new methods for broadening participation, creating an inclusive climate, and evaluating the success of virtual scientific meetings for broadening participation in the field of integrative organismal biology. The broader impact will be an increase in the number of scientists from currently underrepresented groups in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) is a comprehensive scientific society for integrative organismal biology research. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, SICB is planning a virtual 2021 SICB Annual Meeting during the months of January and February 2021. SICB’s efforts to develop innovative online delivery of scientific content, networking opportunities, and ways to broaden participation may be transferable to other scientific societies. Hence, the primary goal of this project is to undertake a formal evaluation of the efficacy of the new meeting formats for reuse in future SICB meetings and dissemination to other scientific societies. SICB will reach out to other scientific societies in the field of integrative organismal biology with meetings planned for spring and summer 2021 to offer opportunities to replicate the meeting evaluation. The evaluation will include a formative plan that will focus on the processes of the conference, such as the quality of the overall program, satisfaction with conference offerings, and the mechanisms for communication. A summative evaluation will focus on the short term and more intermediate impacts, such as diversity of participation in the 2021 SICB Annual Meeting, the feelings of inclusion and camaraderie of those participating in the meeting, and expansion of diverse representation among SICB leadership. The intellectual merit of the project is to develop and evaluate innovative and inclusive virtual scientific meeting formats and the broader impact is to broaden participation by increasing the number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics professionals from underrepresented groups, especially in the area of integrative organismal biology.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.