This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences program aims to reform the organizational culture and programmatic decision-making within 5 U.S.-based scientific societies. The $494,256 award, granted on March 1, 2024, will enable the researchers to implement a three-stage approach involving education, reflection, and guided action planning to help these societies expand from "communities of practice" focused on science to "communities of care" centered on supporting diverse researchers, professionals, and educators.
As part of the project, the researchers will engage the 5 societies in a series of listening sessions, workshops, and events to address both internal leadership structures and external elements like journal and conference organization. A $75,000 sub-award to Colorado State University will support travel, workshop facilitation, data collection and analysis, and graduate student mentorship for this cultural change initiative. Through this comprehensive approach, the project seeks to catalyze broader, sustainable shifts in discipline-level values and practices to better serve the biological sciences community.
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