Research Inclusion Initiative

NOIRLab is leading the US-ELTP Research Inclusion Initiative, designed to broaden research participation by underrepresented astronomers, faculty, and students from minority-serving, small, and underserved institutions. To make astronomy and astrophysics more inclusive for traditionally underrepresented scholars, the Research Inclusion Initiative will provide tangible motivations that encourage researchers to employ teams that are diverse in both cognitive areas and identity and to foster a more equitable research environment, both in our program and in the discipline more broadly.

The Research Inclusion Initiative will enable participation in research with the Thirty Meter Telescope and Giant Magellan Telescope data by the broadest group of scientists by focusing on four areas of research inclusion:

1. Establishing policies and procedures that enable and encourage mutually beneficial partnerships between astronomical researchers at institutions of various sizes
2. Fostering opportunities for scientific network- and collaboration-building
3. Developing technical infrastructure that enables broad participation in astronomical research
4. Providing instructional engagement and other resources for researchers at all career stages to support their training needs

To encourage inclusion, we present the first release of the US-ELTP Toolkit of Collaborative Practice!
The Toolkit provides information on best practices for mutually beneficial research collaborations. It will provide proposers with the necessary information to build effective research inclusion plans. It will also provide reviewers with recommendations for assessing and ranking research inclusion proposals. This is the first version of the Toolkit; subsequent versions with additional content will be available in the coming months. We are soliciting feedback on Toolkit use and content. Please see the Feedback link in the Toolkit.

Suggested Citation: Sacco, Timothy, and Norman, Dara. 2023. US-ELTP Toolkit of Collaborative Practice. doi:10.5281/zenodo.7603698