Helping Researchers Write Better Inclusion Plans

By Tim Sacco and Dara Norman 

The Toolkit of Collaborative Practice has been released as part of the US Extremely Large Telescope Program’s (US-ELTP) Research Inclusion Initiative to provide best practices for themes and activities that support inclusive research. Informed by current social science literature, the Toolkit is a curated database where users can find inclusive activities and practices to implement in their collaborations. The Toolkit provides proposers with the tools and expertise to develop good, meaningful inclusion plans. 

Over the next year, the Research Inclusion Initiative will release updated and augmented versions of the Toolkit that include additional topics and themes, as well as suggestions for how reviewers of inclusion plans can use the Toolkit in assessing inclusion proposals. The Research Inclusion Initiative staff is collecting community feedback about Toolkit Version 1.0, and will incorporate this feedback into the design and content of future versions of the Toolkit.