DEI BoF: INCF Assembly

• Date/Time: September 13, 2022. 1700–1830 CEST
• Format: short presentations + panel discussion
• Points of contact:
  • Malin Sandstrom (malin DOT sandstrom AT incf DOT org)
  • Ankur Sinha (ankur DOT sinha AT ucl DOT ac DOT uk)
  • Shailesh Appukuttan (appukuttan DOT shailesh AT gmail DOT com)

Goals

Initial goals are just to bring people together to discuss the state of the neuro-community, and what is being done already, what challenges people have faced when trying to improve D&I.

So, we expect people to talk about their experiences, metrics, initiatives, challenges, future plans and so on.

We expect a few BoF sessions will be needed before more concrete actions like the formation of a SIG may materialise.

People/organizations we could invite/involve

This is a list of people we can request to be involved, or ask for recommendations from.

• Outreachy organisers: Ankur e-mailed on 11 July.
• OCNS: Sharon Crook, Fleur Zeldenrust, Volker Steuber: Ankur e-mailed on Aug 5
• OHBM: Diversity and Inclusion Committee: Ankur e-mailed on Aug 5: confirmed
• The ALBA network (they have people in the FENS office): Ankur e-mailed [e-mail] on Aug 2: Received response, tentatively will attend/speak.
• BiasWatchNeuro: Ankur e-mailed on Aug 3: confirmed
• Other Neuro organizations that have D&I related initiatives
  • SfN: contact info?
  • EBRAINS: in contact
  • BRAINS: Ankur e-mailed on Aug 5
  • IBRO Diversity grants
  • NASEM action collaborative: could not find contact info
  • Women in Neuroscience (WINRepo) repository of female researchers in neuroscience (read their Comment in EJN about the reactions when they started): Confirmed
  • Black in Neuro: Ankur e-mailed on Aug 5
• Neuromatch community

Possible discussion points

• Citation practices in neuroscience, some good reading and statistics in "The extent and drivers of gender imbalance in neuroscience reference lists" (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32561883/), and a related comment by Adrienne Fairhall and Eve Marder: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-020-0667-x
• Possible actions (summary from the EJN paper on WINRepo)

Funding bodies?

There does seem to be a tweak in grant requirements that also puts stress on D&I for projects now.

• Wellcome: Ankur e-mailed on 5 Aug
• UKRI: Ankur e-mailed on 5 Aug
• NIH: Ankur e-mailed on 5 Aug
• IBRO
• ALBA FKNE YIBRO Diversity Grants
  A collaboration between FENS Kavli Network of Excellence (FKNE), Young IBRO (YIBRO), FENS, IBRO, the Federación Latinoamericana de Neurociencias y el Caribe (FALAN), the Federation of Asian-Oceanian Neuroscience Societies (FAONS), and the Society of Neuroscientists of Africa (SONA).