IDEA Taskforce
In recent years, our group has made significant steps into enhancing our collective awareness on inclusive workspaces through the efforts of the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accountability (IDEA) task force. Our primary motivation in establishing such a taskforce was to promote, within our research group, a shared vision of our workplace as a safe environment, where ideas, suggestions, and discussions are always encouraged.
Inception
In 2023, during a Women’s Day celebration, all the women scientists of our group gave short presentations on their research work, which were followed by a discussion about the systematic challenges faced by women scientist in academia. These shared experiences inspired us to team up in order to first educate ourselves more in depth on such matters and then to gradually make our workplace safe for everyone.
Thus, the IDEA taskforce was born through our collective need to improve our research group’s commitment to these IDEA-ls (pun intended!).
Past actions
We are not experts!
While our taskforce continuously advocates for IDEA topics, we acknowledge that we are not experts in these fields. Our events are “handmade” by us and there is a lot of prior work and studying involved to make sure that we approach each topic respectfully and with the attention it deserves. To make sure that we remain aligned with the values of our group, we regularly seek feedback and support from them. This input has helped us improve and learn a lot about how to bring the most positive change with small but impactful actions.
