"Inclusivity means we are not only allowed to be there but also valued." - Claudia Brind Woody

The most fundamental science instruction and resources are inaccessible to a sizable portion of the world's population. As a result, they cannot contribute to creating new knowledge. At IISER Mohali, we recognize the need to foster a more accepting environment for the pursuit of science where everyone can participate regardless of background. We have made every effort to reach as many people as possible and give them the tools they need to engage in scientific discourse, think critically, and appreciate the beauty of science and nature. We engaged in several activities—some of which are briefly detailed below—to attain this aim.

Making sure that the project is accessible to those who are colorblind was a priority throughout the process. About 1 in 12 men (8%) and 1 in 200 women (0,5 percent) have color vision deficiencies. Deuteranopia (red-green color blindness), Protanopia (red color blindness), and Tritanopia are the three basic types of color blindness (blue-yellow color blindness). While choosing our color scheme, one of our team members brought this to our attention. This aided in selecting the optimum color scheme for the entire project, and we also looked at color contrast ratios. As a result, all of the main varieties of color blindness can easily discern between the colors we choose for our visual identity. We specifically made our logo with a colorblind inclusive palette for the 300 million people worldwide suffering from colorblindness. We stuck to a distinct coloration throughout our journey so everyone could relate to it.

We celebrated Disability Pride Month in July to show our support for people with disabilities and stand against the social stigma and discrimination they face. We promoted the participation of people in science regardless of identity and diversity concerns.

However, disability is not just physical. Since depression is frequently stigmatized in academia and little emphasis is placed on mental health and well-being, we also highlighted Nikolaas Tinbergen, who battled depression and later won the Nobel Prize.

Many schools in India use Hindi or other regional languages as their primary teaching medium. However, traditionally, new scientific discoveries, papers, and new disciplines like synthetic biology have all been written in English. People who have studied these subjects in their native tongues may find it challenging to comprehend these ideas because of this language barrier.

• In our Synthetic Biology workshops, we communicated the concepts and illustrations in both Hindi and English to ensure students were comfortable and understood.
• To make our outreach initiatives more accessible, we translated the GMO and synthetic biology survey into nine languages: Arabic, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Greek, Punjabi, Bengali, English, and Hindi. This survey's objective was to learn more about the general public views on synthetic biology and the usage of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The goal was to comprehend how people felt about GMOs and determine whether their views were influenced by their geographical location. The survey was given out to people of all ages and professional backgrounds, and the questions were created so that no prior understanding of science was necessary.
• We collaborated with Team iGEM Patras to make a video explaining terminologies like the wet lab, synthetic biology, and dry labs. Each collaborating team responded to questions regarding these topics in their native tongue. As a team from India, we answered in Hindi, one of India's most widely spoken languages. It was a pleasure to be a part of such an initiative.

We thus ensured that our outreach did not target a single linguistic community. We believe that by breaking down linguistic obstacles that prevent people from understanding STEM concepts, a substantial positive change could be observed in the STEM community.

Please visit the Education and Communication Section to know more.

According to a 2020 United Nations report, Indian women scientists are only 14% of the 280,000 scientists, engineers, and technologists employed in research institutions in the country. We sought to close the gender gap and make STEM fields more welcoming to women. After considering our own high school experiences, we concluded that it is preferable to start motivating girls to pursue science. We tried to remember the names of some eminent women scientists whose names are often forgotten and celebrated their achievements to remove the social stigma around women working in STEM. Moreover, we were delighted to see equal representation of girls in our workshops and hear how passionate they were about science.

We believe everyone has the right to pursue science irrespective of diversity and identity issues. We celebrated diverse representation in STEM by observing Disability Pride Month and discussing common fallacies. By celebrating Pride month, we not only showed our support to the LGBTQ+ community but also promoted the idea that they should be heartily welcomed in STEM.

We have approximately equal representation of each gender on our team. Additionally, our team members come from various Indian areas and cultures. Each member of our team brings a unique set of interests, knowledge, and perspectives to the field of synthetic biology. Having perspectives from various backgrounds has helped us holistically comprehend each component of our project.