What did the diversity committee achieve up until 2021?

Led by Elena Casacuberta and Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo (2014-2020), the IBE Diversity Committee proposed the following actions, with the following results:

• Actively look for inviting women speakers at the IBE seminars and establish a quota around 30% of women speakers at the conferences organized by IBE members

  • Note: current IBE policy is that gender parity should be achieved among IBE seminar speakers.

• Organize a retreat-like activity for all IBE members focused on this subject

  • In October 2015, the Diversity Committee offered a seminar to all IBE staff during the IBE retreat sharing the results of a study on gender equality and explaining the measures adopted together with the institute direction board.

• Look for women when searching for potential IBE PI candidates

  • Note: this measure was adopted by IBE, and is current practice.

• Increase female presence in both the executive board and the external advisory board

  • In 2017, the IBE directorate changed and Elena Bosch was incorporated as Vice-Director.

  • IBE's Executive Board also changed three of the members of the External Advisory Committee, incorporating Anna Di Rienzo (University of Chicago), Purificación López-García (Université Paris-Sud / Paris-Saclay) and Susanna Manrubia (Spanish National Center for Biotechnology (CSIC)).

• Establish a link between IBE’s Diversity Committee and other similar committees

• In parallel, in collaboration with the IBE Communication Unit, several outreach campaigns were organized around 11 February

Led by Rosa Fernández (2020-2021):

• Participate in the first CSIC diversity committee meeting (2020)

• Recruit a group of IBE members (technicians, PhDs, postdocs)

  • To create an initial draft of the IBE Diversity proposal (2020-2021).

  • To adapt and launch the ACT Survey, with overall survey participation of 69% of IBE, whose results are described below.

• Propose numerous actions to be taken at IBE

  • A channel for a formal system of collection of suggestions and ideas.

  • Promote the visibility and inclusion of female scientists within the IBE community.

  • Reaching equality in leading positions at IBE.

  • Reaching equality in hiring processes at IBE.

  • Increase interactions among members of the IBE community.

  • Increase dissemination of information on diversity statements and plans by the IBE community.

  • Publish internal IBE guidelines on inclusive practices in academia (interviews, recommendation letters, reviews, etc.)

What has the diversity committee achieved since 2021?

In October, 2020, IBE conducted a survey available to all members of the community, whose principal results and recommendations for current and future actions are summarized below. These results were presented to the IBE community and to the IBE direction, who agreed to implement future proposed actions.

From 2021-2023, several of the actions proposed above have been implemented:

1. Training

   1. New training courses to address specific needs

      1. Inclusive and non-sexual language training, 10 February, 2021

2. Organizational Culture & Climate

   1. Improve internal communication, especially between buildings

      1. IBE Suggestion box

      2. Bi-weekly coffee breaks (initiated by the IBE Mentoring Committee)

   2. To address “Men and women don’t think that they are treated equally at IBE”

      1. Modification of language in job offers to promote applications from women

      2. Use of gender-balanced images and language on IBE official communications (IBE Website, social media, press releases)

3. Behavior

   1. Anti-harassment protocols available on the IBE Intranet

In addition, we also continue with the following actions:

1. Regular visibility campaigns and school visits to demonstrate role models for 11F and 8M (in collaboration with the IBE Communication Unit)

2. Ensure IBE seminars continue to have gender-balanced presenters

3. Partnerships with other local diversity committees (Figure 2)