Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Decolonization
WORLDiscoveries is committed to meaningful and action-driven considerations of equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization (EDID) embedded within its business development, technology transfer and educational programming practices. We seek to foster a diverse membership that reflects the broader community WD serves.
By surveying our clients and educational programming data we have determined several areas where we are actively working to break down barriers, improve access to our services and ensure equitable supports are available for equity-deserving groups.
How does WORLDiscoveries support EDID?
WD commits to continuously monitor our programs, collect pertinent information, and analyze data to inform our practices in breaking down barriers.
- Our Graduate Student Innovation Scholars program, which teaches graduate students how to generate value from a research technology has consistently achieved gender parity within each cohort.
- The Medical Innovation Fellowship cohorts are diverse, with the program seeking representation from equity-deserving groups and recruiting internationally to bring in the brightest minds to solve healthcare’s most challenging problems.
- The Innovation Ambassadors program has recruited a wide variety of faculty members across campus with a representative in most departments – each bringing unique points of view to commercialization and innovation development.
Core EDID Principles
Intentional EDID practices provide equitable access to our services – advancing our goal of reaching diverse stakeholders through commercialization efforts and opening new opportunities for faculty, researchers, and students.
WORLDiscoveries has identified that we receive fewer Reports of Innovation (ROI) from women and equity-deserving groups. As such, we have developed a plan of action to improve accessibility to the world of commercialization for our diverse community.Plan of Action
Our department has established an EDID committee to explore issues and make recommendations to reduce barriers and ensure equitable and inclusive practices are embedded within our operational and strategic processes.
The WORLDiscoveries EDID committee has identified several areas from internal processes to our program offerings that can be improved to be more inclusive and remove barriers for access.
These include:
- Updating our ROI forms to use inclusive language.
- Expanding outreach events like the Innovation Ambassadors Speakers to have more diverse guests and the Proteus Innovation Competition where we need to endeavor to engage with equity-deserving groups.
- WORLDiscoveries has invited colleagues to discuss topics related to EDID in research, commercialization and educational programming including representatives from Indigenous Initiatives and Western Research.
- All WORLDiscoveries staff have completed Foundational Diversity & Inclusion Resources training through the Canadian Centre for Diversity Inclusion to help us recognize what barriers remain to full participation for underrepresented groups in commercialization, research, and education.
WE Empower
The WE-Empower program brings together individuals who self-identify as women in the technology sector. The mission is to fill the gap that exists within our innovation ecosystem by providing entrepreneurship support and training, and research commercialization to innovate and promote the development of new technologies.