Diversity

The Diversity Working Group (Diversity WG) within the SAIL project advocates for openness, equal opportunities, and diversity in the research community. We follow a holistic approach to promote diverse perspectives in research on intelligent socio-technical systems, as well as to mitigate bias and discrimination.

We approach diversity from a multifaceted perspective, including features like gender, ethnicity, nationality, academic cultures, and languages. Our work aligns with a concept of diversity as a pluralistic perspective and situational interaction.

Our work in the Diversity WG addresses project-specific but also overarching themes such as the impact of bias on and in research and aims at integrating diversity-related aspects into project communication and Citizen Science.

The Working Group consists of members from all participating universities:

Prof. Dr. Rena Amelung (HSBI)
Dr. Peter Kuchling (HSBI)
Dr. Mariya Lorke (HSBI)
Prof. Dr. Benjamin Paaßen (Bielefeld University)
Prof. Dr. Miriam Pein-Hackelbusch (TH OWL)
Dr. Franziska Schloots (Paderborn University)

We meet once per semester, conduct regular internal audits, and formulate recommendations. We also provide accessible and context-specific advice on gender and diversity issues in concrete projects.

Goals and Activities of the Diversity WG

1. Establishment of diversity in the PhD program.
2. Development of a diversity-sensitive competency profile for researchers.
3. Recommendations for diversity-sensitive communication.
4. Consideration of diversity aspects in the AI domain.
5. Integration of diversity aspects into Citizen Science.
6. Implementation of diversity in the Welcome Hub for international scholars.

Implementation

We plan various activities, including needs assessments as well as events on creativity development and Responsible Research & Innovation (RRI). Furthermore, we aim at publishing recommendations for diversity-aware project communication, guides for diversity-aware recruiting and team building, as well as a guide for considering diversity aspects in AI projects.

The contact person for all matters relating to diversity in the SAIL research network is Dr. Mariya Lorke (mariya.lorke@hsbi.de)