Leadership in the Equitable and Ethical Design of Science and Engineering

科学、技术、工程和数学 (STEM) 研究提出了伦理和正义问题。 STEM 研究的审稿人和资助者现在经常要求在拟议研究的设计中整合伦理、法律和社会影响以及多样性、公平和包容性问题。这种期望的转变意味着生物伦理学家、社会科学家以及艺术和人文学者现在被要求加入科学和工程研究团队。将它们从头开始纳入科学进程非常重要。然而，目前尚不清楚如何将这些学者融入到这一过程中。例如，尚不清楚谁拥有相关专业知识或什么才算成功整合。该项目的研究人员正在对基因组学、神经科学和人工智能领域过去的整合工作和案例研究进行彻底审查，以建立证据基础，促进更加道德和公正的 STEM 研究。因此，该项目将为制定新的指导方针铺平道路，以组建科学合作团队，并促进持续的制度变革，从而促进科学和工程领域的公平和道德稳健的研究。创建的指南将成为 STEM 研究中的研究人员、管理人员、审查委员会、资助者和其他利益相关者的宝贵资源。该项目还为研究生和博士后研究人员提供培训机会。越来越多的公共和私人机构以及资助者认识到将伦理和社会分析纳入科学、技术、工程和数学 (STEM) 研究设计的至关重要性。该研究计划评估了之前将关注道德、法律和社会影响 (ELSI) 以及多样性、公平和包容 (DEI) 问题的计划整合或嵌入到科学和工程研究项目中的努力。证据基础通过两种方式建立：(1) 对描述“综合”和“嵌入式”ELSI 研究及其 DEI 目标的文档和文献进行内容分析； (2) 基因组学、神经科学和人工智能领域中“集成”和“嵌入式”ELSI 和 DEI 含义的案例研究比较。通过这种分析，项目团队确定了最佳实践，为 STEM 研究中的 ELSI 和 DEI 制定实用的、概念上参与的、道德上稳健的指南提供信息。这项研究支持 STEM 研究指南的公平和道德设计领导力的未来发展。这些指南的目标是明确 DEI 和 ELSI 合作的作用、参与点、时间表和可能的结果，以支持 DEI 和 ELSI 更强有力地融入 STEM 研究。最终，该研究将支持跨部门的努力，以创造持续的组织文化和政策变革的方式重新阐述伦理和公平科学的含义，以 DEI、ELSI 以及促进公平和正义的目标为中心。该项目由 BIO 理事会通过 ER2 计划资助。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) research raises issues of ethics and justice. Reviewers and funders of STEM research now often ask for integration of ethical, legal, and social implications and diversity, equity, and inclusion issues in the design of proposed research. This shift in expectation means that bioethicists, social scientists, and scholars in the arts and humanities are now asked to join science and engineering research teams. Their inclusion in the scientific process from the ground up is important; however, it is not clear how to integrate these scholars into the process. For instance, it is not clear who has the relevant expertise or what counts as successful integration. The investigators of this project are conducting a thorough review of past integration efforts and case studies in the fields of genomics, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence to build an evidence base that will facilitate more ethical and just STEM research. As such, the project will pave the way for the development of new guidelines for forming collaborative teams in science and facilitating sustained institutional changes that promote equitable and ethically robust research in science and engineering. The created guidelines will be a valuable resource for researchers, administrators, review boards, funders, and other stakeholders in STEM research. The project also offers training opportunities for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers.Increasingly public and private institutions and funders recognize the critical importance of incorporating ethical and societal analysis into the design of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) research. This research initiative evaluates previous efforts to integrate or embed initiatives focused on ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) issues into science and engineering research projects. The evidence base is being built up in two ways: (1) a content analysis of documents and literature that describe “integrated” and “embedded” ELSI research and DEI objectives within it; and (2) a case study comparison of the meaning of “integrated” and “embedded” ELSI and DEI in the fields of genomics, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence. Through this analysis, the project team identifies best practices that will inform the creation of practical, conceptually engaged, and ethically robust guidelines for ELSI and DEI in STEM research. This research supports the future development of Leadership in the Equitable and Ethical Design for STEM research guidelines. The goal of these guidelines will be to specify the role, points of engagement, timeline, and possible outcomes of DEI and ELSI collaborations in a manner that supports a more robust integration of DEI and ELSI into STEM research. Ultimately, the research will support the creation of a cross-sectors effort to reformulate the meaning of ethical and equitable science in a manner that creates sustained organizational culture and policy changes that center DEI, ELSI, and the goals of advancing equity and justice.This project was funded through the ER2 program by the BIO directorate.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.