ADVANCE Partnership: Raising Equity Values with the Inclusive Professional Framework and the International Organization for Standardization Standards in Engineering Societies

The significance of the global problems faced by the United States as a world leader demand excellence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Excellence is the result of teams of talented, diverse people working together in an inclusive environment. Currently, the United States is struggling to meet national demand for a greater number and more diverse engagement of STEM academics and workforce professionals.

Thanks to two decades of NSF ADVANCE-funded research on organizational change strategies to promote comprehensive and inclusive STEM disciplinary engagement, the struggle to achieve a diverse STEM academic and professional workforce is not because we don’t have evidence-based policies and practices for doing so, but rather the lack of nationally recognized standards to promote the collective awareness, knowledge, and application of these evidence-based policies and practices. However, as of May 2021, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Human Resource Management released their Diversity and Inclusion Standard (ISO:30415; ANSI, 2021).

The problem that remains is the mechanism by which awareness, knowledge, and application of the newly released standard will be efficiently and effectively achieved. Professional and disciplinary societies (collectively referred to as “societies”) serve academic institutions and academic-influencing organizations such as accrediting agencies, national laboratories, corporations, and government, and are thus uniquely positioned to model and help facilitate efficient and effective adoption of the ISO standard:30415.

Further, because engineers are especially attuned to standards, engineering societies are a primary focus. Thus, this project aims to provide engineering society leaders and stakeholders with ISO:30415 standardization resources and tools, which will drive awareness, knowledge and application of evidence-based inclusive organizational policies and practices.

Ultimately, this project will enhance the United States’ STEM excellence and means of addressing the complex problems facing the nation, and the world.

The goal of this project is to enhance awareness and adoption of the ISO:30415 Diversity and Inclusion Standards by engineering professional societies which will increase the awareness and adoption of evidence-based organizational policies and practices promoting inclusive disciplinary excellence. The project will engage three target audiences: (1) individuals, (2) organizations, and (3) systems.

The project aims to accomplish its goal through a two-phase approach. Phase 1 involves the creation and piloting of a novel, web-based ISO:30415 platform tailored for engineering societies. Phase 2 includes developing and deploying activities to standardize a change process for change leaders.

The Inclusive Professional Framework for Societies, a research-informed, evidence-based framework, will be foundational to the standardization of the organizational change process. Expected outcomes include: development of ISO:30415 engineering society web-based platform; engagement of 2 cohorts (up to 15 societies); collection, development, and use of organizational change tools and resources for engineering change leaders.

Results will be disseminated through websites, webinars, engineering journals, and society professional conferences.

The NSF ADVANCE program is designed to foster gender equity through a focus on the identification and elimination of organizational barriers that impede the full participation and advancement of diverse faculty in academic institutions. Organizational barriers that inhibit equity may exist in policies, processes, practices, and the organizational culture and climate.

ADVANCE "Partnership" awards provide support for the adaptation and adoption of evidence-based strategies to academic, non-profit institutions of higher education and non-academic, non-profit organizations.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.