This week, I want to share a moment from a meeting I went to recently at the National Science Foundation. It was a lunchtime session about a new initiative that the NSF is in the middle of launching. The initiative is called the 'Convergence Accelerator' and it will be awarding upwards of $70 million in funding for projects that design real-world solutions for areas that the NSF has identified as important.
A large portion of the meeting was dedicated to one of the initiative leaders explaining what exactly the convergence accelerator is and how the award process will work. Projects are meant to bring together the research and entrepreneurial communities to submit collaborative proposals with tangible outputs. Proposals will be reviewed by panels and awarded in two rounds. You know, the technical details.
But that's not the moment that sticks out for me. The moment that sticks out for me came during the audience question and answer session. The women with whom I was attending this meeting stood up and walked to the microphone. She spoke about how promising the program seemed and then simply asked "What is your diversity and inclusion strategy?"
The man standing at the podium seemed a little bit taken aback. He said that the NSF has a broadening participation initiative, but he wasn't able to articulate how that would be embodied or applied to the convergence accelerator. My fellow attendee told him that inclusion "doesn't just happen." We had a long talk about it afterwards.
I tell this story not as a criticism, but as a perfect example of why it's important to speak up and ask questions. Psychological research shows that even when people say they support diversity and inclusion, it doesn't mean that equity will magically happen. In fact, some of the most effective ways to foster diversity and inclusion is to build procedural checks into things like hiring and decision-making processes. In the case of the NSF, this might include concrete goals for making sure there are submissions from a diverse pool of applicants and that there are projects focused on a variety of populations and contexts. It's not all about people's hearts and minds--concrete goals, rules and guidelines help.
So TL;DR-- Even a single question at an informal meeting might change the course of an initiative. Again, this is UPWARDS OF $70 MILLION DOLLARS IN FUNDING. If you think you might have a proposal that fits the criteria, go check it out and apply. And even if not, take a minute to think about some contexts in your life where a few extra questions wouldn't hurt. You could be the one to bring them up next time!