Introduced for the very first time this year, the Ecsite Collaborative Grant will support a cross-country collaborative action in the Ecsite professional community.

The first Ecsite Collaborative Action chosen by the Selection Committee (a sub-set of the Ecsite Board) is a proposal called “EQUITY@ECSITE” brought forward by members of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advocate Group that has been active in our community for the past three years.

The full grant amount (€20 000) has been awarded to this project aiming at putting the cross-cutting issue of Diversity, Equity and Social Inclusion high on the agenda within organisations and our field and supporting Ecsite members in taking action towards change by raising awareness, providing tools and offering guidance.

Five Ecsite members are acting as main partners (Science Center-Network, Austria; Association for Science and Discovery Centres, United Kingdom; VSC – Association of Science Museums and Science Centers, The Netherlands; TRACES, France; Algarve Ciência Viva Museum, Portugal) but will also be mobilising a dozen champions already strongly involved in advancing this agenda in the Ecsite community, and can count on the more than 140 people who have signed up (since 2016) to be on the list of Advocates for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

A key element of the Collaborative Action is the preparation of a sector-relevant, pioneering, written framework that describes what a science engagement organisation would look like if it truly embraces diversity, equity and inclusion. The framework will be drafted in the first half of 2020 and then piloted, with key happenings at the 2020 Ecsite Conference in Ljubljana next June in the form of several sessions but also a drop-in space at the Business Bistro. The project also comprises an advocacy and a community building & resources strand.

Follow Ecsite channels for information on the Action’s progress: Spokes, Twitter and Facebook