A toolkit for funders to increase early-career diversity in ecology
While diversity among scientists is tied to improved research quality, output, and ethical standards, access to funding opportunities for research and equity among those receiving funding for scientific research remains disproportionately low.
For early career researchers (ECRs; e.g., students, post-grad researchers, and assistant professors), securing funding is a critical part of establishing one’s career by enabling the pursuit of novel research projects, advancing career development, and supporting livelihoods.
Unfortunately, the road to funding can be filled with barriers biased against certain backgrounds such as race, gender, or ability.
Read this open access paper on the FACETS website.
We identified the main stages of the funding process (advertising of the award, application, review of applications, and awarding of funds) from the perspective of ECR applicants and then developed the Stage-based Assessments of Grants for EDI (SAGE) toolkit for funding agencies to self-assess how their practices at each stage perform at supporting and advancing equity, diversity, and inclusion.
The SAGE Toolkit provides a unified collection of considerations, explanations, and specific recommendations, organized into applicant-centered stages.
The toolkit is relevant for many funding awards and aspects of diversity and is meant as a resource and starting point of discussion and change towards greater EDI in ecology and related fields.
The toolkit is geared towards funding agencies, but allies and advocates of diversity in the sciences will also find guidance for their own practice. The SAGE Toolkit is online at bit.ly/ediSAGEtoolkit.
Read the paper — A toolkit for greater equity, diversity, and inclusion in early-career ecology funding by Catherine Sun, Alys Granados, Christopher Beirne, Gillian Chow-Fraser, Abraham Francis, Lian Kwong, Peter Soroye, Helen Yip, Anita Miettunen, Jeff Bowman, and A. Cole Burton.
