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Virtual Office Hour featuring the new Safe and Inclusive Work Environments Plan Requirement

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About this event

Several solicitations from the Directorates for Biological Sciences (BIO) and Geological Sciences (GEO) will soon require the submission of a Safe and Inclusive Work Environments Plan (list of those solicitations below) that will be considered as part of the Broader Impacts criteria during the review process.

An upcoming Virtual Office Hour will occur on March 20 2023 from 3 - 4 PM ET. Program Officers from BIO and GEO will provide an overview of the new requirement and take your questions and comments.

This 2-page supplementary document must address the following four sections:

  1. a brief description of the field setting and unique challenges for the team;  
  2. the steps the proposing organization will take to nurture an inclusive off-campus or off-site working environment, including processes to establish shared team definitions of roles, responsibilities, and culture, e.g., codes of conduct, trainings, mentor/mentee mechanisms and field support that might include regular check-ins, and/or developmental events;   
  3. communication processes within the off-site team and to the organization(s) that minimize singular points within the communication pathway (e.g., there should not be a single person overseeing access to a single satellite phone); and   
  4. the organizational mechanisms that will be used for reporting, responding to, and resolving issues of harassment if they arise.   

If you are planning a submission that will involve off-campus or off-site research, defined as data/information/samples being collected off-campus or off-site including via fieldwork and research activities on vessels and aircraft, we encourage you to join this webinar. 

Register for the webinar HERE

The solicitations that currently include this requirement are:

  • BIO Core Solicitations:  
    • Division of Environmental Biology (NSF 23-549) 
    • Division of Integrative Organismal Systems (NSF 23-547) 
    • Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (NSF 23-548) 
    • Plant Genome Research Program (NSF 23-559)
  • Biodiversity on a Changing Planet (BoCP, NSF 23-542) 
  • Pathways into the Geosciences (GEOPAths NSF 23-540) 
  • Cultural Transformation in the Geosciences Community (CTGC NSF 23-539) 

Organization

Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO)
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