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There has been a growing interest in the barriers that prevent
scientists with different backgrounds from succeeding in science
(Maas et al. 2021). The recognition
of the importance of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) has sparked
the interest of scientists in academia in recent years
(Tseng et al. 2020), especially
since 2020. Recent events had a large impact in the academic world,
including in the field of Ecology and Evolution. In response, scientists
and institutions questioned some of the fundamental aspects of the
system in an attempt to identify the occurrence of systemic
discrimination that affects students and researchers from minority
groups. There is no longer any uncertainty whether barriers exist for
some groups inhibiting their ability to excel and obtain leadership
positions in the workforce. This is observable in the simple fact that
these groups are vastly underrepresented in student body, faculty
positions, authorship on articles, and on editorial boards of most
scientific journals (Nuñez et al.2019). While actionable changes are required to make academia more
equitable and inclusive (Urbina-Blancoet al. 2020), many fundamental elements of EDI are still not
well defined, and the current concepts and vision are unfortunately
relatively narrow and localized.