Research NewsletterIssue: ORN-2024-35

Advancing Trust in Science: Institutional Obligations to Promote Research Integrity

October 10, 2024; 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.

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NSF Research Security Training

The National Science Foundation launched four new interactive online research security training modules. Stipulated in the Chips and Science Act of 2022, the purpose of these training modules is to, “facilitate principled international collaboration in an open, transparent and secure environment that safeguards the nation’s research ecosystem.” The training modules are now available for researchers and institutions across the country and will help the research community understand and get a better handle on this issue.

The U.S. National Science Foundation, in partnership with the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense, is sharing online research security training for the research community.  This training provides recipients of federal research funding with information on risks and threats to the global research ecosystem — and the knowledge and tools necessary to protect against these risks.

Take the research security training

Take the training directly from your browser. Visit the four training modules at the links below.

• Each module should take about 60 minutes to complete.
• You can leave a module and return without losing progress from this browser.
• When you complete the module, you can download or print a completion certificate, but the module will not save a record of your training.

Module 1: What is Research Security?

Learn key concepts of research security and how to recognize situations that may indicate undue foreign influence. Understand the regulatory landscape that shapes research security and discover what you can do to safeguard the core values that underpin U.S. academic research.

Module 2: Disclosure

Learn about federal funding agency disclosure requirements, including types of information that must be disclosed, how that information is used, and why such disclosures are fundamental to safeguarding the U.S. research enterprise from foreign government interference and exploitation. 

Module 3: Manage and Mitigate Risk

Learn to identify types of international collaborative research and professional activities, associated potential risks, and strategies and best practices for managing and mitigating such risk. Learner experience will be customized based on their role as either a researcher or administrator.

Module 4: International Collaboration

Learn about the role of principled international collaboration in U.S. science, innovation and economic competitiveness. Discover how to balance principled international collaboration with research security concerns, as well as how to foster an open, welcoming research environment that fulfills research security needs.

Why the Research Security Training Required:

Research security training is listed as one of four elements of a Research Security Program required by National Security Presidential Memorandum 33, issued on Jan. 14, 2021, to safeguard our research ecosystem. The "CHIPS and Science Act of 2022," Section 10634, codifies the requirement for research security training for federal research award personnel in public law.

NSF: National Science Foundation Research Traineeship Program; NSF National Resource Coordination Center on Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE Center); Planning Regional Resilience Innovation Incubator (R2I2); Science and Technology Centers: Integrative Partnerships; Planning Grants to Create Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Ready Test Beds

NIH: Revolutionizing Innovative, Visionary Environmental Health Research (RIVER) (R35)

Department of Defense/US Army/DARPA/ONR: Enabling Technologies for Electronic Warfare and Surveillance; NRL Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (PFP)

Department of Commerce/EDA:  FY 2024 – 2026 - Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) Announcement Type: Initial Climate Program Office FY2025 Modeling, Analysis, Predictions, and Projections (MAPP) Program: Climate Change Projections to 2050: Applied Information for Industrial Applications

Department of Energy: Carbon Capture, Removal, and Conversion Test Centers

NASA: MUREP Earth System Science Research (MUREP ESSR)

National Endowment of Humanities: Spotlight on Humanities in Higher Education

Army unveils draft for $10B software development competition: The Army is now ready for industry to take a look at the service branch's plans for competing a multiple-award software development support services contract that is much larger in scope than originally communicated. In May, the Army first touted the ceiling of its New Modern Software Development IDIQ vehicle as exceeding $1 billion over 10 years. Then in July, Army officials announced the ceiling will be $10 billion as per a quarterly presentation to industry available here via GovTribe. A draft solicitation unveiled Friday sheds further light on the Army's plan to bring in a group of contractors that can perform on rapidly-awarded task orders as they are finalized. More information is posted on the NextGov website.

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DOD unveils new biodefense-focused supercomputer: The Department of Defense and National Nuclear Security Administration have a new supercomputing system focused on biological defense at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Inaugurated on August 1, the system will “provide unique capabilities for large-scale simulation and AI-based modeling for a variety of defensive activities, including bio surveillance, threat characterization, advanced materials development and accelerated medical countermeasures,” per a readout from DOD spokesperson Robert L. Ditchey II.  DOD says that it’s working with NNSA to up the computing capability for national biodefense systems — and that “the collaboration has enabled expanding systems of the same system architecture as LLNL's upcoming exascale supercomputer, El Capitan, which is projected to be the world's most powerful supercomputer when it becomes operational later this year,” the readout states. The rest of the U.S. government, its allies and partners, as well as academia and industry will all be able to tap into the system. DOD funded the new system out of its Chemical and Biological Defense Program. More information is posted on the NextGov website.