NSF Org:	SMA SBE Office of Multidisciplinary Activities
Recipient:	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
Initial Amendment Date:	August 29, 2022
Latest Amendment Date:	August 29, 2022
Award Number:	2220611
Award Instrument:	Standard Grant
Program Manager:	Jason D. Borenstein jborenst@nsf.gov  (703)292-4207 SMA  SBE Office of Multidisciplinary Activities SBE  Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences
Start Date:	September 1, 2022
End Date:	August 31, 2025 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount:	$399,971.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date:	$399,971.00
Funds Obligated to Date:	FY 2022 = $399,971.00
History of Investigator:	Susan Wolf (Principal Investigator) swolf@umn.edu Gillian Roehrig (Co-Principal Investigator) Korkut Uygun (Co-Principal Investigator) Keisha Varma (Co-Principal Investigator) Timothy Pruett (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office:	University of Minnesota-Twin Cities 2221 UNIVERSITY AVE SE STE 100 MINNEAPOLIS MN  US  55414-3074 (612)624-5599
Sponsor Congressional District:	05
Primary Place of Performance:	University of Minnesota-Twin Cities MN  US  55455-2070
Primary Place of Performance Congressional District:	05
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI):	KABJZBBJ4B54
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s):	ER2-Ethical & Responsible Res
Primary Program Source:	01002223DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s):	110E, 1340
Program Element Code(s):	129Y00
Award Agency Code:	4900
Fund Agency Code:	4900
Assistance Listing Number(s):	47.041, 47.075

ABSTRACT

The NetEthics project will make a major advance in the responsible conduct of large, complex engineering research projects such as NSF-funded Engineering Research Centers (ERCs). Engineering research increasingly involves big, multidisciplinary teams networked across multiple universities and other institutions to develop new technologies. However, tools to help these teams conduct research ethically and develop technologies for societal benefit are lacking. Instead, current research ethics and tools tend to focus either on the responsibilities of individual researchers or the broad societal issues that the new technology will raise. These two ends of the spectrum ? the micro level of the individual and the macro level of overall impacts -- leave a troubling gap in the middle by offering little guidance to the leaders of complex research networks. Those leaders regularly face difficult issues such as how to reconcile conflicting ethical approaches across the network, how to ensure ethical and respectful laboratory leadership and mentoring, how to create network-wide processes for resolving disputes, and how to build a network culture valuing inclusion and diversity. Network leaders also face challenges in building community and stakeholder relationships, ensuring responsible commercialization, and making sure that the entire research network fulfills ethical responsibilities such as responsible conduct of research (RCR) with human participants, ethical treatment of animals in research, and avoiding conflicts of interest.

The NetEthics project will use a three-part approach, building on the NSF ERC for Advanced Technologies for the Preservation of Biological Systems (ATP-Bio). Study 1 will identify the roster of key values that should guide ethics and RCR at the level of a complex research network. Methods will include literature review and analysis, plus a modified Delphi process to support consensus among ATP-Bio?s Ethics & Public Policy Panel of leading authorities on ethics and RCR. Study 2 will develop a survey assessment tool to assess the range of approaches to key values across a network to reconcile differences. Methods to develop the tool will include semi-structured interviews of ATP-Bio researchers with qualitative analysis of resulting transcripts, pilot testing of the survey, and administration of the survey tool across the ATP-Bio network. Study 3 will develop educational case studies for use by complex research networks to advance ethics and RCR at the network level. To develop those case studies the NetEthics team will collect candidate cases from Study 2 inputs and embedded ethics engagement in the research network. The team will select cases that illuminate the key network ethics and RCR values identified in Studies 1 and 2, and pilot the cases in ATP-Bio workshops to refine them.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

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