Inclusive research practices can lead to progress towards an inclusive society. With this study, we aimed to gain insight into dilemmas and catalysing processes within the long-term collaboration of an inclusive research duo: one non-academic researcher who lives with the label of intellectual disabilities and visual impairment, and one academic researcher. Both researchers kept personal diaries about their collaboration process. Inductive thematic analysis, individually and as a group of authors, was employed. Our findings reveal six necessary conditions for diversity-sensitive work in inclusive research: (a) experiencing belonging within the research group, (b) empowering people in a team through growing self-awareness and competence-building, (c) having room for reflection and searching for various ways of communication, (d) sharing power and ownership of research processes, (e) having enough time to foster the above conditions, and (f) joining in a mutual engagement in accommodating vulnerability in dialogue and collaborative work. Awareness of stigma-related issues and the risk of tokenism is also required.
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There is more to be learned from nature as a whole. In practice ‘nature’ is often used in teaching, training, consultancy and organisational development as a metaphor, as a source of inspiration or as an example for all kinds of processes, including leadership, cooperation, relationships and the development of organisations and society. Mainly ecological, and much less frequently biological, processes are generally involved here. The question has gradually arisen whether we can learn more from nature in the social environment than what we ‘see’ on the surface - which is often translated in metaphors. Seen more holistically, this is about the systemic side, the complexity, the context and the coherence. For example, can we demonstrate that applying fundamental ecological principles, such as cycles (learning, self-organising, selfregulating and self-sufficient capacity), succession, diversity and resilience, social and cooperative behaviour, interconnectedness and interdependency within an organisation leads to a sustainable organisation? Mauro Gallo is conducting research into the significance of technical innovation in and for the agricultural and food sector, and into the question whether biomimicry can in fact be backed up in such a way that it contributes to the social sciences domain. At the same time there is a clear teaching issue: Is it logical from the perspective of our green DNA to include biomimicry thinking in our teaching? Is it possible to learn to apply biomimicry, and can biomimicry be applied in teaching/learning? (How) can we apply biomimicry in green VMBO and MBO, pass it on to the teachers of the future in teacher training courses and include it in making current lecturers more professional? Is it conceivable that it could become an integral component of the curricula in green HBO?
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There appears to be some hesitation within the forensic biology community to formally evaluate and report on findings given activity level propositions. This hesitance in part stems from concerns about the lack of relevant data on the dynamics of biological traces and doubt about the relevance of such expert opinions to the trier of fact. At the Netherlands Forensic Institute formal evaluative opinions on the probability of case findings given propositions at the activity level are provided since 2013, if requested by a mandating authority. In this study we share the results from a retrospective analysis of 74 of such requests. We explore which party initiates requests, the types of cases that are submitted, the sources of data being used to assign probabilities to DNA transfer, persistence, prevalence and recovery (TPPR) events, the conclusions that were drawn by the scientists, and how the conclusions were used by the courts. This retrospective analysis of cases demonstrates that published sources of data are generally available and can be used to address DNA TPPR events in most cases, although significant gaps still remain. The study furthermore shows that reporting on forensic biology findings given activity level propositions has been generally accepted by the district and appeal courts, as well as the other parties in the criminal justice system in the Netherlands.
