Activities within the HERA collaboration are guided by common core values which motivate how and why we study what we do as well as how we interact within the collaboration, and the broader community. These are:
- Inspiration – Astronomy is one of the most inspiring fields of science. At HERA, we not only embrace this energy in our research, but we also take actions that inspire our collaborators and the broader community beyond the scientific findings..
- Empathy – Members of our community are people first and scientists second, each with their own lived experiences. Most importantly, it takes people to do science. We listen to, support, and uplift our members.
- Involvement – We recognize that HERA exists within a larger societal context and commit to sustained community involvement. We welcome all who are interested in the project to engage with the collaboration and conversely commit to proactively reaching out.
- Equity – HERA is an international collaboration composed of both academic and non-academic partner institutions; we engage with all our partners on equitable terms. HERA exists in a broader academic system that perpetuates inequity, and we commit to understanding our role in this system and taking action to help address it.
- Openness – Openness and sincerity drive a knowledge-sharing culture, which is crucial to the success of HERA. It also promotes personal interactions in which opinions and grievances are aired with positive intent, and engaged with genuine desire for positive change.
- Opportunity – Recognizing the importance of fostering equal opportunities via equitable treatments of all who are involved with HERA, we make the necessary accommodations to allow everyone to succeed.
- Recognition – The success of HERA depends crucially on the entire team and we commit to recognizing all contributions, including those not traditionally recognized in academia.
- Mindfulness – We strive to ensure that HERA discussions are safe spaces where critical feedback is provided in a constructive and respectful way. We pay attention to power dynamics that can result in a comment being perceived in very different ways by different people.
- Community – We recognize that both in research and personal development, none of us could have made it alone. Mutual support via strong community is vital for a healthy collaboration.
- Diversity – We embrace and encourage the uniqueness of each member, including but not limited to their personal views, beliefs, academic merits, or experiences, rather than attempting to stereotype, whether consciously or unconsciously.
- Truth and Truthfulness – Valuing the truth drives us to be meticulous in our research, and purposeful in our interactions. At the same time, we realize that many truths are subjective. Implied by this value is the conviction that truth is best uncovered by a mixture of sound reason and empirical evidence.
