We’ve recently been contacted and listed as a verified "Starting Aware Fair & Equitable" (SAFE) lab. This is an initiative set up to help group leaders run their labs in a safe and equitable way, focussing on establishing a set of commitments and lab handbook examples for each group to stick to.
SAFElabs : “SAFElabs is an initiative for group leaders who want a fair, well-run lab. At its heart is the SAFE Labs Handbook, a set of concrete commitments: how you set expectations on working hours, decide authorship, run meetings, give feedback, support people when they join and when they leave, and more. Every commitment comes with examples from real lab manuals, so you never start from a blank page.”
This initiative was started by a group of new investigator group leaders and a series of workshops in 2024 and 2025, culminating in an elife features article and website listing examples of best practice.
In the Dumbell lab we’re really pleased for our lab handbook to be cited as an example for two of the commitments: "I commit to document expectations for record-keeping" and "I commit to publicly document an overview of the regular meetings in the lab, and my expectations for participation”, taken from our public lab handbook. However we’re excited to adapt our practice to further fit these commitments as we go forward. These commitments can be looked into in detail in the SAFElabs Handbook, with examples: https://safelabs.info/handbook/