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各自领域的最新研究和形成研究合作是必不可少的。对于研究生和博士后等职业生涯早期的科学家来说，会议对于发展他们的专业网络和确立自己作为科学界成员的地位尤为重要。考虑到对职业早期研究人员的重要性，会议也是将代表性不足的群体成员带入科学事业的重要途径。新冠肺炎大流行导致许多科学学会转向虚拟会议，综合比较生物学学会将于2021年1月和2月举办虚拟科学会议。该项目的重点是从科学界代表性不足的群体中招募与会者参加SICB 2021虚拟会议，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大会在多大程度上实现了创造包容性环境和扩大参与的目标。该项目的学术价值是为扩大参与、创造包容的氛围和评估虚拟科学会议的成功提供了新的方法，以扩大综合有机生物学领域的参与。更广泛的影响将是来自科学、技术、工程和数学领域目前代表性不足的群体的科学家人数增加。综合与比较生物学学会(SICB)是一个综合生物生物学研究的综合科学协会。鉴于新冠肺炎大流行，SICB正计划在2021年1月至2月期间举行一次虚拟的2021年SICB年会。SICB在开发创新的在线提供科学内容、网络机会和扩大参与方式方面所做的努力可能会转移到其他科学学会。因此，该项目的主要目标是对新的会议形式的效力进行正式评估，以便在今后的SICB会议上重复使用，并向其他科学学会传播。SICB将与综合组织生物学领域的其他科学学会进行接触，计划于2021年春季和夏季举行会议，以提供复制会议评估的机会。评估将包括一项注重会议进程的成长性计划，如总体计划的质量、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更中期的影响，如参加2021年上合理事会年会的多样性，与会者的包容性和友爱感觉，以及上合理事会领导层扩大不同代表性。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不足的群体的科学、技术、工程和数学专业人员的数量来扩大参与，特别是在综合组织生物学领域。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.