In collaboration with leading scholars, scientists, engineers, and educators from university-based centers and fields with expertise in the ethics of scientific research, the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics will provide instruction in ethical issues in scientific research, training in teaching research ethics, and an opportunity for research collaboration for a selected group of graduate students and post-doctoral fellows in engineering and the natural and physical sciences. The project will nurture a community of young researchers who show promise of leadership and an interest in research ethics, providing them with skills in ethical thinking, understanding of the historical context of scientific misconduct, and an awareness of the mutidisciplinary nature of major ethical issues in science and engineering. A related objective is to train them in teaching research ethics. The goal is to enhance the ethical quality of participants' own research careers, that of their colleagues and of the generations of students they will teach. The project will also exploit the resources already created in previous work, by collaborating with prior participants to: 1) Develop a set of more effective teaching materials and techniques for instruction in research ethics, with an emphasis on best practices. 2) Produce a set of narratives that capture the ethical environment and ethical problems of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, and a set of recommendations for improving graduate research ethics education, from the perspective of participants trained in ethics. 3) Produce scholarly papers on issues in research ethics, especially those encountered in the graduate education experience. Finally, the project will provide a network of support to assist the students in providing leadership in ethical issues in the scientific community. The first project component will involve 15 participants a year, for each of three years, in eight months of activity, including an intensive 4.5 day workshop on research ethics, a 1.5 day teaching seminar, the development of a case and commentary on a topic in research ethics, and experience in teaching research ethics at their home institution. The second component will involve collaborating with up to 51 former participants of the program to develop more effective teaching materials in graduate research ethics, including a focus on best practices; to develop recommendations for improving the research ethics experience in the graduate setting; and to engage in scholarly work on issues of research ethics, particularly those related to the graduate school environment. This component will involve work over four years and include four 1.5 day working conferences. This project will directly impact the understanding and teaching of research ethics for 96 young researchers and will indirectly affect their peers, students, graduate departments and universities. It will contribute to understanding of the task of graduate research ethics education and provide some tools for that effort.
