Diversity and Inclusion

The core mission of the ANZSCDB is to promote research and education in cell biology and developmental biology through the provision of a diverse, inclusive, and equitable environment. Bringing together the talent, skills and knowledge of cell and developmental biologists across Australia and New Zealand will increase our scientific excellence. Every ANZSCDB member brings a unique value to our society’s diversity by their culture, ethnicity, race, nation of origin, religion, sex, gender identity, age, colour, disability, sexual orientation and beliefs, language spoken, education and opinions.

At the ANZSCDB we come together.

The ANZSCDB unites scientists from Australia and New Zealand, across the career spectrum, from undergraduate students through to retired scientists, with a shared enthusiasm for cell biology and developmental biology. We meet annually at our state meetings, at our biannual meeting (ComBio) and at conferences that many of our members attend, such as the Hunter Conference. ANZSCDB is committed to supporting and encouraging attendance at society meetings and presentations at these meetings by researchers from all backgrounds. These include First Nations people, culturally and linguistically diverse people, people with a disability, neurodiverse people, people of all genders, sexualities and age groups. ANZSCDB meetings, or those receiving support from the society, should strive for gender equity and representation of diversity in organising committees, speakers (invited and selected from abstract), session chairs, and panel discussions.

At the ANZSCDB we stay together.

The ANZSCDB provides several platforms to stay in contact beyond in person meetings. These include communications via Twitter, Slack and email. In particular, the ANZSCDB slack channel is considered to serve as a member-driven communication platform to facilitate the connection between the younger generation and more established ANZSCDB members. ANZSCDB aims to provide a productive and enjoyable environment for scientific discussion and interactions for everyone. Members are expected to behave professionally at ANZSCDB events, and while communicating within or on behalf of the Society. We recommend that ANZSCDB meetings follow the “London Code of Conduct”, which clearly defines harassment and inappropriate conduct.

At the ANZSCDB we work together.

ANZSCDB state meetings seek to support members from a variety of institutions and career stages and across the range of current and emerging model organisms and experimental systems. New scientific ideas are formulated at our meetings, initiating new collaborations which might lead to multi-disciplinary impactful discoveries of translational potential. A diverse and inclusive organisation of ANZSCDB state meetings may also consider the use of a venue accessible to people of all abilities, provision of hearing aids if required, use of colours accessible to colour-deficient individuals (avoid red-green combinations), availability of Nursing and Prayer Rooms, consideration of day-care and school drop-off/pick-up times, catering options for people with dietary requests. Through the formation of a diverse and inclusive executive, the ANZSCDB demonstrates the society’s distinctiveness and objective to foster different perspectives and backgrounds in its leadership, decision-making processes, and actions, fundamental to enable equitability and to drive scientific innovation. As such, the ANZSCDB strives to ensure that the broad range of differences are also presented by our state representatives and members of the council.

At the ANZSCDB we celebrate together.

At ANZSCDB, we wish to promote the talent of our membership base to reach international recognition. Therefore, our wide range of awards offers an opportunity for all members to apply and to meet the awardees at the award celebrations. ANZSCDB is committed to the principles of fairness, equity and diversity in assessing and administering society awards. In 2019, the ANZSCDB Early Career Researcher Award was introduced with up to two awards annually, complementing the prestigious ANZSCDB Emerging Leader Award and President’s Medal.