Enhancing Equitability and Access to Science by Creating Virtual Conference Capacity for the 24th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals and the 7th Bio-logging Symposium
Abstract
This proposal is for technical support for two international conferences that are heavily focused on marine mammals, as well as other taxa, and technological advancement to better understand species, behavior, ecology and management. This proposal is to cover aportion of the expenses for contracting a professional company to provide the infrastructure and data management for hosting an online virtual scientific conference. The addition of a virtual conference component fulfills an obligation to better engage and share science with marginalized members of our scientific community that have been unable to participate due to cost or other obstacles (more on this is goals and objectives).The goal of this proposal is to enhance capacity, to facilitate exchange of information, and develop lasting professional collaborations. These scientific meeting will facilitate the sharing and integration of expertise acrossgeographic regions, species, and disciplines in order to address emerging issues of concern in the field of marine mammal science, technology and beyond. Conference sessions at both events will highlight recent advances in tools and technologies, acoustics, cumulative impacts, emerging infectious diseases, telemetry/tagging, and human dimensions in marine mammal (and other taxa) conservationand management. Specific objectives are of the scientific agenda are: 1.Facilitating exchange of cutting edge information 2.Training scientists from countries with limited research capacity 3.Producing online workshop and conference proceedings that can be used in any country with web access.4.Facilitating development of international partnerships for assistance during emergency marine mammal morbidity and mortality events, 5.Developing capacity world-wide for marine mammal science by providing mentorship and a constructive learning environment for students entering the field.6.Finally, and core to this proposal and request for support is amplifying all of the above by adding a virtual component to each conference. By doing so, we will accomplish three important advancements forour scientific community:a.Radically increase accessibility to our scientific content to a global community of scientists, managersand enthusiasts by allowing them to participate in or view posters, presentations or plenary sessions from the comfort of their home or office. Many individuals who would be unable to afford the cost of conference registration and travel can now take part in these important events. b.Allow for safe engagement during a global pandemic. We hope to be at the tail end of the current pandemic, but the future is still uncertain. Even if we are, many travel restrictions could still be in place, fear of travel may be guiding decisions to attend and real risk of disease exposure will still exist at some low level. Virtual participation will give comfort and opportunity to still participate in some capacity.c.Reduce our overall carbon footprint. Both conference bring together a community from every corner of the world and with that comes significant carbon impact due to travel. Both conferences have committed to finding ways was to shrink that impact and a virtual format is a significant step towards that goal. Many people choose not to participate because of their commitment to being green. This new option allows them to re-engage in these scientific forums while staying true to their personal environmental stewardship goals.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jun 09, 2021
- Source ID
- N000142112565
Entities
People
- Kathleen Moore
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- Society for Marine Mammalogy
- United States Navy