Diversity Promotes your Career

Happy new year!

I recently stumbled across a new initiative that I thought you might be interested in; a non-for-profit focusing on improving diversity in science:

The Royal Society and The University of Westminster have provided a business case that demonstrates diversity is essential for delivering excellence in science.

The study found that career progression within science was negatively affected by a lack of diversity, by providing:

• A limited number of positive role models for those from minority groups
• A lack of flexible working policies
• A lack of post-maternity and carers support

On a personal note if you’re working in a diverse team, they’ve been shown to be more innovative, more effective, stimulate soft skill development (including adaptability, curiosity and interpersonal skills), and prevent people from feeling like outsiders in the workplace.

Ultimately, diversity promotes success and therefore has a positive effect on career enhancement for scientific researchers.

A non-for-profit initiative called ‘Scientists without Labels,’ aims to help improve diversity amongst research teams, by broadening the visibility of minority groups within science. This is achieved by sharing the stories of a broad range of young and established researchers in STEM.

Scientists Without Labels was founded by the post-doctoral researchers Amy Chen, Manuela Jörg, and Shaz Sivanesan. The motivations behind their initiative is based on the observation, that a lack of role models from a diverse background, is a contributing factor for young people to decide against a career in science or talented young scientists to leave.

If you want to know more and learn about positive scientific role models, or if you’ve a story to share about a successful scientist from an under-represented section of society then let Scientists Without Labels know. You may be able to provide a useful case study for this important initiative.