7 Good Practices for EDI in Research, Teaching & KMb

The project report identifies seven good practices that aim to help researchers, instructors, and KMb practitioners and their teams take action on EDI in their everyday work. We hope that this report will contribute to a collective learning process that, over time, moves Canada’s SSP community toward greater equity, diversity and inclusion. In the report, we deliberately identify ‘good’ rather than ‘best’ practices; this report is meant to be a conversation starter, rather than the final word.

We want to thank the ISSP’s partners on this project, the Canadian Science Policy Centre, the Institute on Governance, the Ottawa Science Policy Network, and Science & Policy Exchange, for their participation, advice, and collaboration to mobilize project findings.

Universities, funding agencies, and governments across Canada are taking action to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in research, teaching, and knowledge mobilization (KMb) activities. Identifying how to transform research and KMb to incorporate EDI principles is an urgent imperative. But there are gaps between EDI ambitions and EDI know-how: How do we get from an abstract concept to concrete action?

In early 2022, the ISSP convened its network of researchers, students, and practitioners in a series of 3 workshops to mobilize its expertise and help incorporate EDI principles in decision-making at the science-society-policy interface.

This project received financial support through a Knowledge Mobilization Grant 2021-22 from uOttawa’s Office of the Vice-President Research and Innovation.

The project objectives were to:    

• mobilize knowledge from researchers and senior practitioners in the ISSP network about how to define and embrace EDI in research, teaching, and KMb activities at the SSP interface    

• identify challenges and how to overcome them, ‘lessons learned’ and ‘good practices’   

• disseminate findings to the research community, policymakers, funding agencies, and the public    

• promote collective learning, cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral collaborations among participating researchers, students, partner organizations, and knowledge users    

• encourage and enable EDI in research and knowledge mobilization at the SSP interface.   

 The ISSP hosted three virtual workshops in March/April 2022, inviting ISSP network members to engage in conversation about their experiences with EDI at the SSP interface. Each workshop addressed a different question:    

 Workshop 1: What does EDI mean in the context of your research, teaching, and KMb activities at the interface of science, society and policy?  Read the workshop report here.

Workshop 2: What challenges are you encountering around EDI in the context of your research, teaching, and KMb activities at the SSP interface? How can they be addressed?  Read the workshop report here.

Workshop 3: What are some ‘lessons learned’ / ‘good practices’ based on your experience with EDI in your work at the SSP interface?  Read the workshop report here.

In addition to the workshop sessions, ISSP network members also had the opportunity to share their thoughts through a bilingual online survey that included the three workshop questions.

On September 29th, 2022, the ISSP hosted Food for Thought, a virtual panel discussion, on the project report. Speakers included:

• Monica Gattinger, Director, ISSP  

• Martine Lagacé, Associate Vice-President, Research Promotion and Development, uOttawa 

• Kimberly Girling, Manager, Science Policy Team, Office of the Chief Public Health Officer at Public Health Agency of Canada; Member of the ISSP Advisory Committee  

• Behnaz Refahi, Graduate Student in Mathematics, uOttawa, Organizer of Truth Values Organization at uOttawa  

• Gregor Wolbring, Professor, Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary; Senior Fellow, ISSP  

• Rukhsana Ahmed, Adjunct Professor, Department of Communication, Faculty of Arts, uOttawa; Associate Professor, Department of Communication, University at Albany, SUNY; Core Member, ISSP

On November 3rd, 2022, the ISSP will host a virtual panel as part of the 2022 Canadian Science Policy Conference (CSPC) titled Implementing equity, diversity, and inclusiveness (EDI) in Canadian science policy: What have we learned so far? What is the path forward?

About the panel:

Canada’s science-policy community is taking action to advance equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in research, education, and policy. This is a continuous, complex process that requires on-going learning.

This session aims to contribute solution-oriented learning by taking stock of the current state of play on EDI in Canada’s science policy community: What have we learned so far? What worked, what did not? How can we address the challenges ahead?

The session was collaboratively developed by uOttawa’s Institute for Science, Society and Policy, the Institute on Governance and Science & Policy Exchange. It convenes seasoned and emergent leaders to identify gaps between EDI ambitions and implementation and ideas how to close them. 

Panelists include: 

• Maxime Lê, MA, BHSc, Founder and principal consultant - Lê & Co. Consultants

• Denise Amyot, President and CEO - Colleges and Institutes Canada; Board member, CSPC; Advisory Committee Chair, ISSP

• Paalini Sathiyaseelan, PhD, Co-founder of SP.HERE Society

• Chelsie Johnson, MPH, MDEM, Health Emergency Specialist - The Regional Municipality of York; Canada’s Chief Science Advisor’s Youth Council; Executive, Board of Directors - TAIBU Community Health Centre

• Rhonda Moore, Executive Director, Science and Innovation - Institute on Governance

• Dr. Monica Gattinger, Director - Institute for Science, Society and Policy | Full Professor - School of Political Studies and Founder/Chair of Positive Energy - The University of Ottawa