Diversity in the work environment promotes innovation and excellence, both essential components in achieving outstanding science. Ensuring equal access for all groups will not only broaden the available talent pool, but also provide more universal benefits as more diverse teams generally outperform homogeneous ones. Additionally, members of diverse teams are found to be more open to consider alternatives and challenge entrenched assumptions, which leads to more innovative solutions to problems.
Members of homogeneous groups carry an assumption of shared perspectives. When confronted with a socially different group, the anticipation of conflicting opinions results in people working harder and more diligently to present their arguments. Thus, diversity in teams creates the potential for conflict and miscommunication. The various dimensions of diversity, such as gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, age, and disability, shape our interactions with one another. In a large collaboration such as the Euclid Consortium, with members from many different countries, it is important to be aware that different work styles, cultural stereotypes, and unconscious biases affect how we communicate and work together.
Providing an inclusive and supportive work culture also encourages the participation of underrepresented groups. The notion that underrepresented groups are not choosing to enter or stay in science because of a lack of innate skill or drive is misguided. Studies in social psychology suggest that instead, experiencing a sense of belonging is an important factor of continued participation. An actively supportive environment, characterized by mutual respect and awareness and appreciation of different opinions and perspectives, fosters commitment to the goals of the group and benefits the collaboration as a whole.
Experience from many different fields has highlighted that organizational structures and procedures are an essential tool in promoting and monitoring diversity efforts. The diversity committee aims to provide this organizational framework, in establishing a clear vision on the code of conduct for the consortium and providing resources and practical suggestions for fostering an inclusive environment. At the same time, the committee and EC board are very much aware of the need of working in concert with the legal rules and regulations of the various EC member countries and institutions.
The committee consists of diverse voices, representing different countries, project areas (science, instrumentation, software development) and seniority. Since we want to collectively shape and define the particular scope and objectives of the committee, we rotate the committee membership with service terms of the order of 2Â-3 years. We encourage members to share their concerns and ideas with the committee at any time and to express any interest in serving on the committee in the future.