by Anne S. Meyer, on behalf of the Diversity & Inclusion Committee

Anne Meyer also gave a session on this topic at iGEM’s 2020 Opening Weekend Festival (YouTube)(Bilibili)

Now more than ever, it is important for all iGEM members to build an open and welcoming scientific community. Historically, many people have been excluded from science because of gender, or ethnicity, or social economic status, or a variety of other reasons. As a result, the scientific community is structured in a way that is not equitable for many people.

The iGEM Diversity & Inclusion Committee has been around for about five years now, with the aim of building an open and welcoming scientific community, and eliminating barriers to participation within iGEM and the STEM (Scientific, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) community in general.

First and foremost, the Diversity & Inclusion Committee is here to help iGEM teams to address diversity & inclusion-related topics in their projects. Examples of how the Diversity & Inclusion Committee has helped iGEM teams in the past include:

In 2018, the UAlberta iGEM team wanted to create a broad survey for iGEM community members to ask how people with different genders have been experiencing iGEM and whether they felt included and welcome in the iGEM and broader scientific communities. The Diversity & Inclusion Committee was able to work with this team and provide them with some data about gender statistics and help with the language in their surveys so that it would be inclusive and welcoming for everyone.

In 2019, the TU-Dresden iGEM team was working on a project to identify in real time whether certain genes were present in a sample. Specifically, they were looking at developing an assay for the SRY gene, which is located on the Y-chromosome. The Diversity & Inclusion Committee worked with this team on language to describe their test, and helped them distinguish what it means to be male from what it means to have a Y chromosome.

The Diversity & Inclusion Committee also gathers feedback to address issues of inclusion in iGEM more broadly. For example, in 2013 the Paris-Bettencourt iGEM team observed that females were under-represented in many areas, and made up only around 20% of the iGEM Judges for many years. Following up on that observation, the Diversity & Inclusion Committee worked to improve the gender diversity and in 2018, for the first time, 50% of iGEM judges were female or non-binary. As another example, the Diversity & Inclusion Committee improved the inclusivity of accommodations at the Giant Jamboree by introducing gender-neutral restrooms, lactation rooms, childcare services, and improved anti-harassment policies.

While these examples illustrate how we have worked to improve diversity and inclusion in years past, we have also compiled some tips to help this year’s iGEM teams design their projects to be more inclusive.

Members of the TUDelft team before their presentation at the 2019 Giant Jamboree

Tip 1: Diverse Representation in Methodology

In designing your iGEM project, we encourage you to consider: Who is included in your project design? Who benefits from your research? Will anyone be disadvantaged? Although you may want your iGEM project to benefit society, even your best intentions can have unintended consequences, especially for groups that are already disadvantaged.

A classic example is the work of Jay Keasling’s lab, where they used a synthetic biology approach to make artemisinin, which is a drug used to treat malaria. This drug was originally extracted from the wormwood bush by subsistence farmers who based their entire livelihood on growing and harvesting the wormwood bush so the drug could be extracted. While the intention was to help society by making the anti-malarial drug more available, the unintended consequence was the disruption of these farmers’ livelihoods.

Another example is sex bias in animal studies. It turns out that the use of male mice in scientific research outnumbers the use of female mice by 5 to 1, which can have unintended consequences in that experimental data obtained primarily from male mice on disease progression or response to drug therapy may not be informative for both male and female humans.

Tip 2: Inclusive Language and Communication

The way in which you communicate your work can require thoughtful and inclusive language. For example, it is all too common for questions asking about gender to include only two options for response – female or male. But consider how you would feel if you are a non-binary person who was asked this question and did not fit into either a male or female category.

A more inclusive way to ask about gender would be to recognize that not all people identify as male or female and to include non-binary choices (see Spiel et al. 2019 for examples of how to ask about gender in surveys). In fact, one of the improvements made in iGEM generally is to include non-binary choices when asking about gender for team registration and other activities.

The need for thoughtful and inclusive language goes beyond survey questions about gender, and includes ways to be sensitive when asking about sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, national identify and more. We have identified some helpful resources, including:

And we encourage you to reach out to the Diversity & Inclusivity Committee at diversity@igem.org with questions and to ask for help if you are interested in conducting a survey or developing inclusive and sensitive language for your project.

Tip 3: Sharing Your Work Accessibly

Once you completed your project and are ready to share your work with others, it is important to consider who can access your project’s technology and how you can share your knowledge accessibly. Examples of previous iGEM teams that have done some amazing work in this area include:

The 2018 Marburg iGEM team designed a barrier-free wiki to remove barriers in communication for the visually impaired. You can find their guide to creating an accessible wiki here (under Integrated Human Practices, Society-Accessible Web Design, Accessible Wiki–The guide).

The 2019 IIT-Madras iGEM team continued a multi-year effort by earlier IIT-Madras iGEM teams – The Language Project – where they have been making videos and instructional materials about synthetic biology, and translating these materials into as many different languages as possible, including 15 Indian languages and more than 20 foreign languages.

Panel of Judges at the 2019 Giant Jamboree

Tip 4: Inclusion of Diverse Identities

Ideally, we would like every iGEM team to create an environment that is welcoming and supportive for people of all backgrounds and identities, so that all are included regardless of age, disability, gender, marital status, economic status, LGBTQ+ status, race, ethnicity, religion, personal beliefs, or professional experience.

As an example, some ideas for how you can make your iGEM team more welcoming and supportive for LGBTQ+ members include:

Pronoun Sharing – When your team first meet each other, consider having each team member and the instructors share their pronouns along with their name. Ana – see image available for reuse at https://www.flickr.com/photos/taedc/27937114851

Visible Support – Consider using visible signs of support, such as a flag or an ally button, so that LGBTQ+ people know they are welcome (this is especially important for people in positions of leadership, such as instructors, advisors and mentors of iGEM teams) Ana – see image available for re-use at https://www.flickr.com/photos/rosefirerising/27613028406

We encourage every team to create their own Code-of-Conduct that explicitly states that your team stands for fairness and respect. A team-specific Code-of-Conduct will go a long way not only in creating an inclusive environment, but also an environment in which people are free to speak up if they do not feel welcomed. You may find inspiration in the iGEM Rules of Conduct, which details expectations for all iGEM teams to demonstrate Responsibility, Honesty and Respect.

Tip 5: Distribution of Skills and Responsibilities

iGEM is a chance to learn! Everyone on an iGEM team should have a chance to try whatever aspects to the project are interesting to them. And so, it is important to be aware of, and try to avoid, sociologically based “type-casting”.

As an example, the Diversity & Inclusion Committee ran an exercise at the 2019 Giant Jamboree where team members identified their gender and their main role on their iGEM team. The results showed that whereas the wet-lab work (upper left) was fairly evenly divided between males and females, outreach (upper right) and integrated human practices (middle left) were highly female-led. It may be that females were encouraged to work on these roles, while males were less encouraged.

Interactive activity from the Diversity and Inclusion Committee at the 2019 Giant Jamboree

People have different learning styles that might affect how they take part in different aspects of an iGEM project. To help everyone on the team get the most out of their iGEM experience, it is important to take the time to figure out the individual goals of each person on the team – what would they like to learn? Ideally, people on the team will bring in different skills. If team members mentor each other, then everyone on the team will have a chance to learn a new skill.

Tip 6: Accommodations and Adjustments

Teams can do a lot to accommodate team members and make their iGEM project more inclusive. It’s important to allow team members to communicate their needs and contribute to their fullest potential. No one should feel obliged to “sit out” of things due to aspects of their personal identities, characteristics, or situations.

Many factors can influence how team members are able to contribute to an iGEM project, including socioeconomics, disability, caring responsibilities, health or wellness, physical separation from other team members, different learning speeds and styles, or lack of confidence.

Here is an example of how one team sought to accommodate differences to make iGEM more accessible:

2018_OLS_Canmore_Canada iGEM team created accessible workplace setups to help one of their team members who had cerebral palsy overcome the barriers to working in a lab, and make their lab experience, and the experience of others with physical limitations, easier and more accessible.

Accommodations and adjustments are especially important this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has already begun to change the dynamics of how iGEM team members work together. For example, some people may:

have significant caring responsibilities or health concerns
have difficulty working on new technological platforms such as Zoom
be more prone to depression, anxiety, or overworking.

Some ideas for overcoming the challenges iGEM teams are facing include:

Implement flexible hours
Check in with each other
Take time for self-care

In closing, I encourage you to visit the Diversity & Inclusion Hub and to get in touch the committee at Diversity@iGEM.org. You may have already thought about or experienced some issues that might affect your project and your team’s ability to work together. We’d love to have a discussion with you about overcoming these issues. We are here to help you, answer questions, and to work together with you in making iGEM, and the STEM community in general, more inclusive.