Research NewsletterIssue: ORN-2024-29

Advancing Trust in Science: Institutional Obligations to Promote Research Integrity

8:00am - 4:30pm • Hybrid - Registration is required. RSVP here

Hosted by the Department of Medical Ethics & Health Policy and the Institute for Translational Medicine & Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine

Several high-profile examples of research misconduct, defined as fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism, have recently come to light, amidst a moment of already precarious and waning public trust in science. The issues are not new, although there are now novel tools for identifying misconduct, proliferating platforms for discussing allegations and publicizing concerns, and growing unease about politically motivated misconduct allegations. In addition, the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Research Integrity recently proposed new regulations to revise the Public Health Service Policies on Research Misconduct, with a final rule expected this year. Against this churning backdrop, how should institutional stakeholders – including universities and publishers – address concerns about research misconduct, from prevention to response? How should institutions build and maintain a culture of scientific integrity? When problems arise, how should they ensure procedural protections for those accused of misconduct, protect accusers from retaliation, conduct comprehensive investigations, facilitate rapid resolution, and promote transparency? Should responses differ when institutional leaders are accused of misconduct or when misconduct arises outside the health sciences? This symposium, which will be published in an open access special issue of the Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics in Spring 2025, will present commentaries on these issues and others from leading experts in ethics and law, those with experience identifying research misconduct, and those sharing relevant stakeholder perspectives, including researchers, academic leadership, and journal editors and publishers.

___________________________________

Join The Advanced Manufacturing In Space Catalyst Community

CLICK HERE TO JOIN

NEW Advanced Manufacturing In Space Catalyst Community tracks the priorities of industry and government to anticipate and respond to the nation’s most critical innovation needs. There is no fee to join, so sign up today! This community aims to cultivate a collaborative and sustainable ecosystem for manufacturing activities in space, spotlight funding opportunities, and convene key member events and webinar series. Focus include:

• Advanced Materials;
• Additive Manufacturing;
• Biomanufacturing;
• ISAM & Autonomy;
• Microelectronics;
• Testing & Validation;
• and much more!

___________________________________

Burroughs Wellcome Fund invites applications for Climate and Health Interdisciplinary Awards

Link to complete RFP

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF) invites applications for Climate and Health Interdisciplinary Awards.  The awards program provides support for collaborative exploratory work that opens new ground for comprehensively assessing or mitigating the impacts of climate change on human health. This program will support both individual scientists and multi-investigator teams. Early-career faculty and postdoctoral fellows nearing their transition to independence are especially encouraged to apply, whether individually or within teams.

The program aims to prime discovery in areas that are difficult to reach through discipline-specific, silo-driven approaches. BWF will provide flexible funding for conceiving and piloting work that will grow into productive and informative collaborations among researchers approaching connected questions from fields that usually do not interact. Proposals should be driven by broad questions that present significant potential for evidence-based discovery. Work that includes consideration of social justice in addition to evidence-based discovery is welcome.

Grants of $375,000 over three years will be awarded. Examples of projects might include but are not limited to the role of climate change in exacerbating vector-borne-and non-communicable diseases (NCDs), using “big data” to predictively model aspects of health impacted by climate change, engineering or architectural approaches to alleviating climate-related health risks, and developing new research tools at the interface of health and climate-informed disciplines.

Applications must be submitted by a single United States or Canadian institution, which will serve as the sole payee. Proposed teams may include researchers from beyond the U.S. and Canada, including those from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Letters of intent are due August 29, 2024, at 3:00 p.m. ET and upon review, selected applicants will be invited to submit a full application by October 31, 2024, at 3:00 p.m. ET.

For complete program guidelines and application instructions, see the Burroughs Wellcome Fund website.

____________________________________________

2024 Undergraduate Research and Innovation (URI) Summer Research Symposium

and

National Academy of Inventors (NAI) – NJIT Chapter Innovation Day

July 24-25, 2024, Ballroom A&B, and Atrium, Campus Center

RSVP by Registration Form by July 15, 2024

The URI Summer Research Symposium agenda is posted here on the NJIT Google Drive.

More than 180 undergraduate students will present their summer research work at the symposium. Best innovation projects will be awarded the Dr. James Stevenson Innovation Award: first, second and third prizes of $1,000, $750 and $500 respectively.  In addition, The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Chapter at NJIT will host the NAI-NJIT Innovation Day on July 25, 2024, featuring distinguished keynote presentation by Dr. Amit Chakraborty, Principal Scientist, Hybrid Digital Twin & AI at Siemens Corporation. NJIT faculty inventors will be inducted to National Academy of Inventors as "Members" and "Honorary Members" at the NAI-NJIT Chapter Induction Ceremony and Lunch from 12:00 AM - 1.00 PM on July 25, 2024. 

Provost John Pelesko will open the symposium with welcome remarks. President Teik Lim will welcome us on the second day, celebrating the NJIT Innovation Day with NAI-NJIT Chapter and Dr. James Stevenson Student Innovation Awards

You are invited to join us to encourage undergraduate students in the summer research program and celebrate the induction ceremony of our faculty inventors. The symposium program includes light breakfast and lunch on July 24 and July 25.   However, we request you to please confirm your attendance for these events by filling out the Registration Form at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfMrSRU0W_t6ub1WKevEDekVKzokHgT4H9k_afs0jje0cscyw/viewform.  Please respond by July 15, 2024.

NSF: NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP); Engineering Research Initiation (ERI); Computer and Information Science and Engineering : Core Programs; NSF National Quantum Virtual Laboratory - Quantum Testbeds (NQVL); Privacy-Preserving Data Sharing in Practice (PDaSP); Advanced Technological Education (ATE); Advanced Computing Systems & Services: Adapting to the Rapid Evolution of Science and Engineering Research 2.0; Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program: Instrument Acquisition or Development

NIH: D-START: Data Science Track Award for Research Transition (D/START) (R03)

Department of Defense/US Army/DARPA/ONR: Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM); FY24 Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division Office-Wide Broad Agency Announcement; C4ISR, Information Operations, Cyberspace Operations and Information Technology System Research, Cryogenics and Quantum Broad Agency Announcement (BAA)

Department of Energy: Geothermal Resources’ Value In Implementing Decarbonization (GRID)

NASA: Heliophysics U.S. Participating Investigator; Heliophysics: Living With a Star Science

Private Foundations: Coca-Cola Challenge - Real Time Visibility for Warehouse Operations

DHS generative AI pilot embraces hiccups of emerging tech: A Department of Homeland Security official said an artificial intelligence pilot launched earlier this year to train officers in conducting interviews with individuals seeking refugee status is embracing inconsistencies in the technology’s output to better simulate real-world situations.  Speaking at the ATO and Cloud Security Summit on Thursday, Michael Boyce — director of the DHS AI Corps — said the department’s United States Citizenship and Immigration Services is leveraging generative AI tools to train new asylum and refugee officers with simulated interviews mirroring the actual conversations they are likely to have with asylum seekers.

Boyce said officers typically conduct roughly three hour long interviews with applicants seeking refugee status. For new officer training sessions, experienced personnel would often be removed from their normal schedules to play the part of refugees in mock interviews.

Under the new system, Boyce said officers-in-training will type out an interview question and “generative AI will pretend to be a refugee applicant and give them answers, new answers, to practice the three hour long interview with an automated system.” Rather than placing strict limits on the output of these systems, Boyce said USCIS is leaning into generative AI’s less predictable responses. More information is posted on the NextGov website.

_______________________________

NIST will fire the ‘starting gun’ in the race to quantum encryption: As the National Institute of Standards and Technology is slated to soon debut the first round of encryption algorithms it has deemed suited for the potential arrival of a viable quantum computer, experts have advice for organizations: know your code. The need for strong cryptographic governance ahead of migrating digital networks to a post-quantum standard will be a major component to updated cybersecurity best practices, as both public and private sectors begin to reconcile their network security with new algorithmic needs.  Matthew Scholl, the chief of the computer security division in the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Information Technology Laboratory, said that understanding what a given organization’s security capabilities are will offer insight into what aspects of a network should transition first.  Deep understanding of what current encryption methods do and precisely where they are will be a fundamental aspect of correctly implementing the three forthcoming quantum-resistant algorithms. More information is posted on the NextGov website.

_______________________________

FedRAMP unveils new framework for prioritizing emerging tech: The federal government’s secure cloud computing validation program laid out a new operating framework that prioritizes integrating emerging technologies into federal agency operations. Released on June 27, the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program’s Emerging Technology Prioritization Framework provides guidance for both the public and private sectors regarding how FedRAMP will work to identify which emerging technologies to focus on implementing and how cloud service providers can request their emerging tech-powered products be prioritized.  In order to reconcile the growing demand for automation in public sector operations with existing FedRAMP requirements, the framework will start with prioritizing up to three cloud service offerings per capability, meaning that up to 12 AI-based offerings could be prioritized. If designated a priority cloud-emerging technology system, FedRAMP will fast track the provider for agency use and adoption. “The framework is designed to expedite the inclusion of emerging technologies in the FedRAMP Marketplace, so agencies can more easily use modern tools to deliver on their missions,” a blog post on the framework’s release states. More information is posted on the NextGov website.