Research Ethics in STEM: Network Building and Graduate Student Training

San Francisco State University, San Francisco CA

Investigators

Abstract

The goal of this project is to expand a Science, Technology, and Society Hub at San Francisco State University into a research community that supports cross-campus collaboration between social science and STEM faculty and graduate students. The STS Hub will support faculty research, create professional development opportunities for graduate students, train students in responsible conduct of research and enrich graduate curricula across campus. This initiative will establish a network of faculty and graduate students to engage in interdisciplinary research, training, and collaboration. It will identify best practices for cross-disciplinary training at the graduate level and be of interest to educators, administers and responsible conduct of research practitioners. Via three successive academic-year-long thematic research programs, the co-PIs will seed collaborative STS research among faculty, as well as providing training and mentorship to graduate students in STS and in conducting socially responsible research. Thematic research programs will foreground questions of social and environmental justice, with proposed theme years addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, alternative energy, and automation and artificial intelligence. Annually organized activities will include a launch event, bimonthly Fellow meetings, thematic workshops and trainings, works-in-progress sessions, and an annual conference. Beyond these ongoing campus-specific undertakings, the co-PIs will work to include local and transnational constituents, to support the dissemination of collaborative research products created by STS Hub Fellows. The co-PIs will publish findings regarding the outcomes of this innovative model for incubating collaborative projects that lie at the intersection of science, technology, and social justice. These activities will contribute to ongoing efforts in STS and allied fields to innovate and institutionalize models for ongoing research collaboration that use STS methods to support responsible research and will significantly expand the scope of such efforts through its implementation at a teaching-focused and minority-serving public institution. Co-funding of this award is provided by Ethical and Responsible Research Program and Build and Broaden: Enhancing Social, Behavioral and Economic Science Research and Capacity at Minority-Serving Institutions Program. 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.