A lesser headline from the CHIPS and Science Act – but still one crucially important for ASU and all academic research – is the law’s requirement that the National Science Foundation (NSF) address the “ethical and societal considerations” of its research across its entire portfolio. This mandate applies not just to NSF’s new Technology, Innovation and Partnerships Directorate, but across the entire foundation, and not just to large centers or institutes, but to all proposals in all fields. The law requires NSF to formulate a plan, in conjunction with the community, by August 2024.
While NSF is doing that, ASU is beginning to prepare its NSF-oriented researchers. One element of this preparation is a monthly series of virtual brown-bag seminars with faculty who have already done extensive work on “ethical and societal considerations.” The goal of these seminars is to make faculty more generally aware of such considerations and the important opportunities for collaborative, interdisciplinary scholarship that exist at ASU. Derived from ASU’s charter and design aspirations, including the recent addition of “principled innovation,” ASU has an important and even pioneering tradition in topics related to this mandate, including applied ethics, responsible innovation, anticipatory governance, socio-technical integration research, futures research, public interest technology, environmental justice, indigenous knowledges, and other related fields. Indeed, we expect these opportunities will help make ASU research even more competitive at NSF!
The first seminar will feature three faculty members with extensive experience in such collaborative work:
- Clinical Professor Karin Ellison, who is director of the Bioethics, Policy, and Law Program of the Center for Biology and Society in the School of Life Sciences
- Associate Professor Gaymon Bennett, from Religious Studies, who directs the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics.
- Lauren Keeler, an Assistant Professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and acting director of the Center for the Study of Futures in the Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation.
Foundation Professor and GFL Associate Vice Provost Dave Guston will moderate.
Seminar Details:
Date: October 27, 2023
Time: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Location: Online Only
Register here: https://researchacademy.asu.edu/CHIPSandScienceActSeries-Topic1
For more information about the NSF mandate, see: https://issues.org/ethical-societal-considerations-nsf-guston/
By Research Operations