Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu once said, ‘If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.’ This quote profoundly reveals the power of inclusivity. Inclusion is not just about accepting and respecting different cultures, perspectives and backgrounds, it is about creating an open and diverse environment where everyone can reach their full potential. An inclusive team is able to brainstorm and look at issues from different perspectives, which leads to more innovation and creativity.

Inclusiveness also means that everyone feels a sense of belonging and that they are an integral part of the group. As former US President Barack Obama said, ‘The root of our strength comes from our diversity.’ An inclusive team fosters better collaboration, reduces disagreements, and increases productivity. Trust and mutual support among members also helps teams come together more in the face of challenges.

By focusing on inclusion, our team not only builds more inclusive and equitable teams, but also contributes to the creation of a more peaceful, just, and prosperous society.

1.1 Multi-disciplinary

We are well aware that iGEM, as a highly interdisciplinary and comprehensive competition, cannot succeed without the wisdom and innovation of different fields. An outstanding project requires not only technical breakthroughs, but also mutual integration and collaboration among various disciplines. This interdisciplinary approach is a perfect reflection of the inclusiveness and diversity of our team.

Our team consists of members from multi-disciplinary fields such as biology, big data technology, statistics, forestry, mechanics, food, agricultural resources and digital economy. This rich background allows us to think from multiple perspectives and break through the limitations of a single discipline. As Steve Jobs, a pioneer in the field of technology, said, ‘Innovation is about connecting things from different fields.’ Different disciplines bring fresh perspectives and diverse solutions to the table, which allows our team to tackle challenges in a more holistic and innovative way.

Inclusivity is reflected in our team not only in the diversity of disciplinary backgrounds, but also in the ideas and experiences of each member. Each member has a unique perspective and strengths that collide in discussions. Whether it is precise analyses from statistics, experimental design from biology, or market insights from the digital economy, each contribution breathes new life into our project. We respect everyone's point of view and encourage free exchange and collaboration between different disciplines. This inclusive atmosphere allows team members to not only utilise their individual expertise, but also to learn and grow through interdisciplinary collaboration.

Figure 1 Group photo of the team

1.2 Gender Inclusion

Our team has always strived to create an inclusive and egalitarian environment when it comes to fostering female leadership. The team captain and co-captains include a number of women who play key roles in the team with exceptional competence and leadership. This diverse leadership structure not only reflects our team's focus on gender equality, but also highlights the outstanding contributions of women in science, art and practice.

These women have taken on important roles in different parts of the project. From the art design of the project, to the precision manipulation of the experiments, to the execution and communication in practice, they have demonstrated exceptional talent and execution. This diverse division of labour and collaboration allowed our team to excel in all aspects, making full use of each individual's unique strengths. Through their outstanding performance, our team not only drove the success of the project, but also demonstrated the importance of gender equality in teams.

We are well aware that gender equality remains a long-standing challenge in the field of science and technology. We are not only advocating for gender equality in our team, but we are also striving to develop more influential female leaders for the future. Inclusivity allows each member of our team the freedom to excel and contribute to the goals of iGEM and the wider community.

A truly inclusive society should provide everyone with equal opportunities and a platform for participation. Through our joint efforts with the Society for the Blind, we hope to call on more people to pay attention to and support the special groups, so that every corner of the society will be filled with love and warmth.

Figure 2 The team co-organized an artistic performance with the Fuzhou Blind Association to promote the integration of the disabled and the able-bodied

Our team co-operated with the Association for the Blind to organise a far-reaching cultural performance. In the process of preparation and implementation, we deeply realised that everyone has the right to participate in cultural and artistic activities, regardless of their sensory abilities. Through this collaboration, we hope to create a platform for the visually impaired to share the beauty of the arts, highlighting our strong commitment to equality and inclusion.

The team members were actively involved in the event, pouring in their efforts from programme planning to stage setting. We paid special attention to how to make the performance a better experience for our visually impaired friends, such as adding on-site commentary and designing tactile interactive sessions. These details not only enriched the content of the performance, but also made the visually impaired feel the warmth of being respected and valued.

This cultural performance not only brought joy to our friends in the Society for the Blind, but also brought valuable experience and insights to our team. The interaction with the visually impaired learnt us to see the world from different perspectives and enhanced our empathy and sense of social responsibility. The understanding, respect and support shown by the team members in their co-operation is the best reflection of an inclusive culture.

We understand that communicating with different countries and cultures is an important part of inclusivity. Therefore, our team has created a special multilingual illustrated book with the aim of making our project more accessible to a wider audience and bringing us closer to people from different backgrounds across the globe. This initiative is not only to disseminate our scientific results, but also to promote a spirit of openness, diversity and inclusive cooperation.

In the creation of the picture books, we have taken into account the needs of different cultures to ensure that the content is not only scientific, but also universally accessible and culturally adapted. By translating into multiple languages, we hope to make it easy for people from different countries and regions to understand the core of our project and experience the beauty of science. This linguistic diversity is an important reflection of the inclusiveness of our team, as we strongly believe that science and knowledge should not be limited by language, culture or borders. As the famous physicist Albert Einstein said, ‘Science knows no borders, for knowledge belongs to all mankind.’

In addition, the design of the illustrated book upholds the principle of easy readability and comprehensibility, ensuring that people of all ages and cultural backgrounds can understand our project through vivid pictures and simple text. This inclusiveness is reflected not only in the diversity of languages, but also in our attention to the needs of different audience groups. In this way, we hope that more people, especially those from different cultures, languages and backgrounds, will be able to participate in our project and experience the inclusiveness of science and the openness of the team.

Drawing multilingual picture books is a concrete expression of our team's commitment to the idea of inclusiveness. By doing so, we hope to make our scientific explorations more accessible to a wider range of people, and also contribute to the promotion of cross-cultural communication and cooperation. We are convinced that inclusiveness not only gives our project a more global reach, but also allows our team to grow and progress in a diverse context.

Our team has always placed a high value on inclusivity and practises this through practical actions. Whether it is the diversity of disciplinary backgrounds or gender equality, we are committed to creating an open and equal environment for collaboration. Female members have demonstrated excellence in leadership positions, and interdisciplinary collaboration has inspired more innovation and creativity. In addition, a collaborative literary performance with the Society for the Blind gave us a deeper understanding of the importance of equal participation. We have also produced multilingual picture books, breaking down language and cultural barriers and making our programmes accessible to a wider audience. Because of our focus on inclusivity, the team has been able to grow in a diverse context and contribute to social inclusion and equity.