Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the Institute

Our vision at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior is to exemplify scientific collaboration that empowers and uplifts historically marginalized groups, accelerating innovation by embracing previously unheard voices.

 

Working Group Mission

Our purpose is to create systems within the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior that facilitate the on-boarding and continued support of under-represented groups – particularly Black and Indigenous people of color, women, and LGBTQ people. We aim to amplify the voices of these groups throughout institutional operations and decision making. We strive to create a community that is deeply connected and shares a collective understanding of the challenges we face. Finally, we seek to develop practices that allow our institute members to be more responsible, engaged, and creative when working with other communities abroad.

Working Group Strategy

We focus our work on five key areas:

Sustained Development – Creating pipelines for systemic implementation of emerging best-practices; centralizing and maintaining institutional knowledge; incentivizing leadership and mentorship.

Hiring Practices – Researching and recommending best-practices for broad-reaching and non-discriminatory recruitment and on-boarding.

Empowerment – Disseminating training and professional development resources for marginalized groups; creating safe-spaces for diverse voices to share their concerns.

Education – Facilitating open dialogue within and between departments; organizing DEI focused workshops; integrating DEI education and MPIAB leadership training programs.

Community Building – Creating opportunities for institute members to engage with each other in positive, fun environments; ensuring institute functions are accessible to all and are organized equitably.