DESIGN: Reforming organizational culture across Biology using a Community of Care framework

为了充分服务于生物科学研究人员、专业人员和教育工作者的不同群体，科学协会的组织结构及其计划决策应强调社区建设和包容性指导的文化，以及科学发现。该项目提出，社会必须从以科学为中心的“实践社区”扩展到以人为中心的“关怀社区”。研究人员已经开发并测试了科学社会领导力的三阶段方法，其中包括在这个概念框架内进行教育、反思和指导行动计划。该项目将邀请5个美国科学学会参加一系列经过严格评估的听证会议、研讨会和活动，涉及内部结构(社会领导力)和外部结构(期刊和会议组织)。使用这种方法，研究人员将在每个科学学会中协调对可操作机会的初始实施和评估，以及“关爱社区”指导的目标。这个项目通过努力改变学科层面的文化价值观，并通过其对来自不同背景和职业阶段的100多名科学家的直接支持，涵盖了更广泛的影响。该项目已经获得了5个美国会议协会及其期刊的支持，这证明了生物学界致力于以证据为基础的新的包容方法的概念证明。指导性行动规划将借鉴在非正式学习和公司环境中为社区建设制定的现有循证战略的专门知识。这种并行方法的一个主要优点是，它将催化一场围绕经过验证的文化变革方法的更广泛的运动，而不是单一社会所能推动的。使用植根于社会学和心理学同行评议研究的模块化、灵活的方法，将允许研究人员获得社会领导力和成员的支持，他们致力于看到他们的社区变得更加多样化、包容和公平，但没有社会和情感工具或充足的资源以可持续的方式做到这一点。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

In order to fully serve a diverse community of researchers, professionals, and educators in the Biological Sciences, the organizational structure of scientific societies and their programmatic decisions should emphasize a culture of community building and inclusive mentoring, alongside of scientific discovery. This project proposes that societies must expand from their “communities of practice”, which center on science, to incorporate “communities of care”, which center on people. The researchers have already developed and tested a three-stage approach for scientific society leadership that includes education, reflection, and guided action planning within this conceptual framework. This project will engage 5 US-based scientific societies in a series of critically evaluated listening sessions, workshops, and events that address both internal structures (society leadership) and external structures (journal and conference organization). Using this approach, the researchers will coordinate the initial implementation and evaluations for actionable opportunities with “community of care”-guided goals in each of these scientific societies. This project encompasses broader impacts by working to change discipline-level cultural values and through its direct support of over 100 scientists from diverse backgrounds and career-stages.This project has already generated buy-in from 5 US-based conference societies and their journals, which demonstrates proof of concept for the Biology community’s commitment to new, evidence-based approaches for inclusion. The guided action planning will draw from the expertise of existing evidence-based strategies developed in informal learning and corporate settings for community building. A major strength of this parallel approach is that it will catalyze a broader movement around proven cultural change methods than a single society can otherwise drive. Using a modular, flexible approach rooted in sociological and psychological peer-reviewed research will allow the researchers to generate support from societies’ leadership and membership who are invested in seeing their communities become more diverse, inclusive, and equitable but do not have the social and emotional tools or abundant resources to do so in a sustainable way.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.