Workshop 3 - Research Culture: Bias, Inclusivity, and Equality in Science

Author

PULSE TCDC

Published

March 12, 2026

Work with others

Foundational Intermediate
1. Interact professionally
• Listens to other people’s ideas with no prejudice • Embraces behaviours that foster effective and positive interactions with colleagues in a goal-oriented manner.
3. Work in teams
• Appreciate the impact of own behaviour on teamwork. • Understands own priorities and those of own coworkers, creates a cooperative work environment
4. Ensure wellbeing at work
• Understands the link between work, physical and mental health, and wellbeing. • Assists colleagues manage pressure and stress and contributes to a healthy work environment.
6. Promote inclusion and diversity
• Appreciates the importance of diversity and how it benefits complex research projects.
• Is open-minded about diverging perspectives, and sensible and respectful to individual differences.
• Understands diversity and equality requirements of institutions.		 • Actively works with diversity projects.
• Keeps up to date on research and findings about the benefits and challenges of working with diversity
• Works exclusively in teams and collaboration partnerships that respect inclusiveness and diversity

Structure

This workshop addresses how research cultures are made, including factors that determine bias, inclusivity and equality in science spaces. The structure of the workshop is adapted from the work of Carnes et al. 20151 and Johnson, 20252. Participants will spend time:

  • evaluating research culture in different research environments
  • identifying types of bias in research-relevant scenarios
  • developing personal strategies to support equity and inclusivity
Time Format Title
30m Interactive lecture Introduction to research culture
30m Large group discussion Identifying 6 types of bias
30m Reader’s theatre Case studies
20m Large group Bias replacement strategies
10m Individual work Creating individual strategies

Materials

Workshop 3: Download PDF

View the Workshop 3: Reader’s Theatre script, or download a PDF

References used in this material can be found in the PULSE Zotero library

Citation

The materials from this session are available for reuse under

Please cite this material as:

Folkesson, K. and Schroeder, K. (2026). SciLifeLab PULSE Transferrable Skills Training Workshop 3 - Research culture: Bias, Inclusivity, and Equality in Science. Retrieved from https://scilifelab-training.github.io/PULSE/0001/workshop-s3.html. DOI: (pending)

If you use this material, we’d love to know! Get in touch with us at pulse.training@scilifelab.se

Footnotes

  1. Carnes, M., Devine, P.G., Baier Manwell, L., Byars-Winston, A., Fine, E., Ford, C.E., Forscher, P., Isaac, C., Kaatz, A., Magua, W., et al. (2015). The Effect of an Intervention to Break the Gender Bias Habit for Faculty at One Institution: A Cluster Randomized, Controlled Trial. Academic Medicine 90, 221–230. https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000000552.↩︎

  2. Johnson, A. (2024). How to design research-aligned DEI interventions in physics. Preprint at arXiv, https://doi.org/10.48550/ARXIV.2406.01390.↩︎