Developing an intervention tool for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in laboratory settings

In the wake of ongoing injustices and disparities in the COVID-19 pandemic and continued extrajudicial killings by police in the United States (US) during 2020, many academic science communities began to have widespread discussions about system racism, the ways in which scientific fields were implicated, and how to strengthen diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programming in academic science fields. As academic researchers in multiple fields and institutions, we each observed this current moment differing vantage points. Discontented with the lack of sustained engagement on discussions of racism, diversity, and inclusion in the aftermath of 2020, we developed an initiative, The DE-SILO (Diversity, Equity, and Sociology Training in Laboratory Organizations) Project, to bring these conversations into everyday practice. The goal of The DE-SILO Project was simple: to spark small but durable changes to daily life in research laboratories. Leveraging the sociological, science and technology studies, and anti-racism scholarship to create a toolkit for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) laboratories, The DE-SILO Project supports sustained engagement on these issues in academic science settings. In this engagement, we document the DE-SILO Project concept and methods, describe our implementation efforts in four research laboratories at institutions across the US, present findings from our pilot year, and discuss lessons learned through implementation.