Three years ago, in July 2021, a group of immunologists gathered with their families at an idyllic location on the Columbia River. For most it was the first real outing since COVID-19 had upended the world, their world especially, and had killed an unimaginable 4 million people worldwide. At the same time the unprecedented pandemic response was met by disinformation campaigns which undermined trust in vaccines and even the expertise of scientists themselves, and fueled shattering rifts between science and the public. The murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter response (and the responses to that) compounded the feeling of widening fractures across the country. And the weekend we gathered, the Portland area experienced a record-crushing heat wave with highs of 116F that made the air itself feel deadly and for many people in the area, it was.
Disasters weren’t just looming, they were present, current, underway. And yet, at this gathering a group of immunologists, mostly principal investigators and faculty, everyone was talking about opportunities - for big changes in science.
It was clear to everyone that the previous eighteen months had not only shown some of the worst of what could happen when a crisis hit the global science system, but also - importantly - some of the best.
The catastrophe of COVID-19 was (largely) met by the world of science with collaboration, collegiality, interdisciplinary cooperation, and open access to shared data. The urgent need to understand the virus and produce vaccines (mostly) blew through turgid systems stuck in hierarchy, politics, and paywalls.
The revelation was that some of the most oppressive aspects of science could, in fact, change - and change quickly. We recognized the benefits and perspectives that had come with the crisis — of greater open access, increased collaboration, broader equity, etc—and that it might be possible to not go back to the old ways. That there was a possibility on the horizon of a world made better for scientists to do their work. And from that: Science, made better.
And that’s where Solving For Science was born. A few weeks later, four of us — Max Krummel and Vincent Chan of UCSF’s Bakar ImmunoX, Liz Neeley of Liminal and me — decided we could rise to meet this moment. We knew there could be and should be a way to help working scientists seize these opportunities for change, and get help doing it. So we created Solving For Science. Since we formally incorporated a year later, we have supported three big programs: NEST (Nurturing Equity in STEM) led by Keke Fairfax, The ENGAGE series of workshops on science communication led by Liz Neeley, and the Discovery Stack Publishing Pilot, led by Max Krummel and Caitlin Beiyun Liu. That’s in addition to the many working sessions developing and incubating new ideas and elevating and amplifying great ones that are already out there.
This week, for the first time in 3 years, ImmunoSkamania was held again, and we are all very pleased to say, it’s happening. Starting next week, we’ll be able to share more of what we learned from the sessions, like How to Green Your Lab and How to Say No, and more ideas for science made better coming out of our community. Stay tuned!