EDI statement in Northomics

Thu, Apr 28, 2022

Our vision

  • We have trust in our guts and minds!
  • For everyone (lab members and guests), to be welcome, included, safe, supported and respected.
  • Ensure equitable access to resources, opportunities, and mentorship.
  • Every team member offers a unique perspective that adds value to the lab.
  • Collaboration between researchers having diverse identities, diverse knowledge systems, diverse world views, and diverse lived experiences promotes personal growth, mutual understanding, problem-solving, productivity, creativity and discovery.
  • Belonging fosters self-confidence, flexibility, team goals, motivation and collaboration.

Actionables

  • Organizing group activities involved all lab members, and everyone is encouraged to join in the activities. 
    • Make sure the type, time and place of activities are accessible for all members, and consider the level of safety.
    • Create a multi-faith calendar and ensure lab events are not scheduled on important religious or cultural days.
  • Work towards preventing unconscious bias and unconscious microaggressions:
    • Educate ourselves about biases and microaggressions.
    • Actively identify and recognize potential unconscious biases that may impact our lab members. It can be dynamic and complex – 
    • Embrace diverse voices, perspectives, values and thoughts.
    • Empathy is the key to preventing microaggressions. We create a thoughtful and considerate atmosphere by maintaining our colleagues’ self-esteem and demonstrating empathy.
    • Learning to avoid / correct doing microaggression mistakes.
    • Encourage new ideas that reflect the viewpoints of people coming from diverse life experiences
  • Interacting with researchers from all over the world to conduct exchange activities to enhance understanding and inclusion of different cultures while conducting academic exchanges.
  • Remove barriers that may block motivation: increasing motivation is less about adding to the level of motivation, but more about removing barriers that might be blocking it.
    • Develop the skills to listen to others. People may feel demotivated when they are not being heard and understood.
    • Together build an environment with trust and integrity, clear visions and team goals to remove the barrier of uncertainty and confusion.
    • Physically barrier-free work environment with equitable access to lab hardwares, instruments, methods, software etc. Open to feedback and suggestions about accessibility. Actively identify any potential limitations of people accessing our resources.
    • Equitable access to mentorship and time. 
    • Equitable opportunities and funding to participate in conferences, professional development. One conference per year and professional development opportunities will be tailored to the trainee’s needs.
  • Selection process for biases and barriers
  • Learn more about EDI.

Resources