Scientific meetings, or conferences, are where researchers with similar or aligned areas of interest gather and serve as important avenues for the discussion and dissemination of science.
These meetings often include presentations or talks on contemporary research findings, along with expert interactions on topics of science and professional development. Across the international scientific ecosystem, several academic conferences or meetings are organised every year, often by scientific societies, research institutes, universities, and organisations.
The ‘bouquet giving’ model
The standard academic meeting model involves a core group of organisers — or a scientific society — responsible for a range of tasks, that include planning the meeting programme, inviting experts, disseminating the meeting information to researchers in the field, and raising and allocating funds for the event.
Scientists at these meetings include invited speakers, who are often those with exceptional accomplishments in an area of work, along with several other researchers and professionals who have to pay a fee to attend the meeting and share their latest research discoveries.
In recent times, scientific conferences across the world have increasingly adopted reimagined conference formats that, in addition to robust scientific discourse, support contemporary academic practices such as non-hierarchical interactions, career-stage equity, diversity, and sustainability. Every year, India hosts a multitude of such meetings and conferences across various fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. These meetings are organised by communities of scientists or scientific societies and, depending on the scale, are held at institutes or universities or at larger convention centres and conclaves. While the content of scientific meetings in India conforms to the standard academic model of talks, presentations, discussions, and interactions, the conduct of meetings deviates sharply from contemporary and emerging conference formats.
To start with, scientific conferences in India continue to uphold bureaucratic and hierarchical frameworks that are largely outdated. Often called the “institutionalisation of meetings”, this includes the mandatory presence of institute administrators on conference committees, organisers listed in order of ‘senior’ and ‘junior’ members, and the obsequiousness in the distribution of work responsibilities based on scientists’ designations.
This bureaucratic footprint is also reflected in the proceedings, which often begin with prolonged talks by science administrators, with the sessions commencing only after the arrival of dignitaries, and running sequentially late. Other aspects that underscore this hierarchy are segregated seating in order of academic designation, bouquet and shawl ceremonies, and elaborate gift-giving rituals for speakers.
We also need to critically reevaluate certain meeting practices in India in the context of growing calls for secular scientific practice and the need for gender and social inclusivity and diversity in science. It is not uncommon to find scientific programmes in India starting with ‘inauguration’ ceremonies, that include ‘lamp lighting’ and devotional songs, and conference materials replete with religious symbolism.
In addition, the lack of gender and diversity awareness is well documented in meeting programmes, that include all-male speakers or panellists (also known as manels) and sessions such as ‘women in science’ that completely fail to account for larger diversity issues in science, such as historically marginalised groups and LGBTQIA+ scientists.
As a contrast
In spite of this, there are examples of scientific meetings in India with frameworks that support informal and non-hierarchical engagement and interactions. The annual meeting series, ‘No Garland Neuroscience’ (NGN), uses a simple, sustainable, and low-in-cost approach, while keeping the focus on the scientific content and discussions.
The long-term Young Investigators’ Meeting (YIM) series from IndiaBioscience (the organisation that this writer is affiliated with) is another example. Initiated in 2009, the YIM series has focused on scientific networking and mentorship among life scientists in India, and has continued to do so with ‘no-garland’ features’ such as speaker lists in alphabetical order, round table seating, equal gender representation, open interactions among scientists who are in every stage of their careers, and the absence of religious symbolism, formal inaugural ceremonies, prefixes and salutations for speakers, and souvenir and bouquet distributions.
A revamp will send a clear message
These examples indicate that communities of scientists in India recognise the need to revamp the conduct of scientific meetings in the country.
The persistence of outdated frameworks in the conduct of the majority of scientific meetings in India has immediate implications related to the nature and the culture of scientific practice in the country. Bureaucratic scientific engagements continue to fuel long-standing academic challenges such as hierarchical and career-stage inequities. Non-secular and non-inclusive meeting practices overlook pressing challenges and persistent advocacy related to gender representation, intersectionality and non-denominational science in the country. On the other hand, re-imagining the structure and conduct of scientific meetings could make planning and budgetary room for improved practices such as hybrid and multi-hub conference formats, a conference code of ethics, a conscious inclusion of diversity, and caregiver support and childcare grants for attendees.
Importantly, the revamp of scientific conferences in India could also have long-term implications related to India’s aspirations to be a serious player in the international science and technology research ecosystem. The larger message will be that science in India supports contemporary conversations on egalitarianism, diversity, inclusivity, accessibility, and sustainability, and is ready to adopt them in the practice and the dissemination of science.
Karishma Kaushik is the Executive Director of IndiaBioscience
