DESIGN: Driving Culture Change in a Federation of Biological Societies via Cohort-Based Early-Career Leaders

Scientific societies can play a major role in creating a professional culture that is welcoming to individual researchers who are from groups historically excluded from science. The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) is an association of 26 member societies in the biological sciences and will use its resources and connections to drive this culture change to benefit diverse early-career researchers.

A federated approach across multiple societies is valuable to expanding the reach of the project, allowing FASEB to affect culture change on a larger scale in biology through its member societies. In this project, FASEB will analyze and define barriers to inclusivity in the entrenched culture and identify mechanisms to overcome these barriers. In addition, the project will provide mentorship, support, and leadership training to cohorts of early-career researchers from historically excluded populations and assist them in engaging in society roles.

Through this mechanism of increased involvement, leadership, and recognition of their efforts, participants will develop a sense of belonging and grow to serve as change agents as they develop as leaders in their home societies. With new cohorts forming annually, this culture change impact will continue to grow over the years.

This project aims to change the current culture of biological societies that negatively affects diverse early-career researchers. The cultural focus is on active participation in society activities; the ability to enter society leadership positions; and invitations into cultural norms needed for retention in a research career, such as networking, collaborative grant applications, publications, and conference attendance.

The project objectives are to (1) document the current baseline related to current policies and practices and recommendations to promote inclusion from FASEB’s member societies; (2) pilot a cohort-based project for early-career researchers that provides mentorship, support, and leadership training and demonstrates increased engagement in societies, sense of belonging, and ability to serve as a change agent; and (3) create an infrastructure for change through identified strategies, resource sharing across member societies, and outreach. Strategies to address barriers will serve as the foundation for future support to be shared across societies and will provide a framework for the participants to act as change agents.

Evaluation data from the pilot implementation will provide preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of initiating culture change through mentoring, leadership training, and virtual community support. Project data will examine the effectiveness of propagating resources and change strategies through multiple societies using a federated approach.

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.