Funds from this grant support a major initiative by the American Geophysical Union (AGU) to increase gender inclusion and reduce sexual and gender harassment in the academic STEM research community, generally, and in the geosciences in particular. Partnering with the National Center for Professional Research Ethics (NCPRE), the AGU will expand the influential SOURCE assessment system, a series of tools and services that allow universities to assess their research ethics climates at the departmental level and to benchmark their own practices against those of their institutional peers. AGU will work with NCPRE to expand and adapt SOURCE so it can be used to effectively assess university work environments for their degree of gender inclusion and their tolerance of sexual or gender harassing behaviors. AGU and NCPRE will then work to raise awareness of the new SOURCE capabilities and to spur adoption by universities.
In addition, AGU will launch several new services aimed at helping its members implement more effective anti-sexual harassment policies and inculcate more thriving cultures of gender inclusion. This will include yearly training workshops, production of a series of scenario-based web videos that provide practical training for dealing with issues of sexual harassment and gender exclusivity, and a leadership development program with an emphasis on effectively leading on ethics, diversity, and inclusion issues.