Contributions to this post were provided by Fred Kronz, SBE/NSF. 

The responsible and ethical conduct of research involves not only a responsibility to generate and disseminate knowledge with rigor and integrity, but also a responsibility to:

• Conduct peer review with the highest ethical standards;
• Diligently protect proprietary information and intellectual property from inappropriate disclosure; and
• Treat students and colleagues fairly and with respect.

Recently, at the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Council meeting, Fred Kronz, a Program Director in the Division of Social & Economic Sciences in the Directorate for Social, Behavioral, & Economic Sciences (SBE) at the National Science Foundation (NSF), presented on CISE, SBE and the Evolving and Expanding Role of Ethics at NSF and Beyond.

He highlighted a number of programs, which the computing research community should be aware of:

• Dear Colleague Letter: Fairness, Ethics, Accountability, and Transparency (FEAT)
  • With this DCL, CISE invites principal investigators to submit proposals to CISE core programs (spanning the CNS, CCF, and IIS divisions and the OAC) that contribute to discovery in research and practice related to FEAT in computer and information science and engineering. Specifically, CISE is interested in receiving, through these programs:
    • Proposals pertaining to general topics in computer and information science and engineering while also integrating or applying approaches to advance FEAT
    • Proposals whose primary foci are on methods, techniques, tools, and evaluation practices as means to explore implications for FEAT
  • The central goal of FEAT is to enable breakthrough research to expand inclusivity in CISE research
    • Some research practices and methods may carry biases and inequities that can in turn have significant impacts on the scientific community and broader society.
    • The increased reliance on computing and information technologies may further increase and automate such biases and inequities.
    • CISE is committed to maximizing the positive consequences of the research that it funds through inclusive research approaches
  • This DCL is not a special competition or a new program. Prospective principal investigators should meet all requirements associated with the core programs solicitations to which they are responding. Additionally, to call attention to responsiveness to this DCL, project summaries should include the acronym “FEAT” in the keyword list.
• Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC)
  • The scope of the SaTC core research program is broad and interdisciplinary, and welcomes foundational research on security and privacy from researchers in computer science, engineering, mathematics, and social, behavioral, and economic sciences.
  • SaTC views cybersecurity as a socio-technical challenge and encourages proposals that advance the field of cybersecurity within a single discipline or multiple disciplines.
  • This solicitation focuses only on research directly supporting a safe, secure, resilient, and trustworthy cyberspace, conducted ethically with the highest scientific standards.
  • Of special interest are proposals that are transformative, forward-looking, and offer innovative or clean-slate approaches that provide defenders a distinct advantage.
  • Proposals are accepted anytime.
• NSF Program on Fairness in Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Collaboration with Amazon (FAI)
  • NSF and Amazon are partnering to jointly support computational research focused on fairness in AI, with the goal of contributing to trustworthy AI systems that are readily accepted and deployed to tackle grand challenges facing society.
  • Specific topics of interest include but are not limited to transparency, explainability, accountability, potential adverse biases and effects, mitigation strategies, validation of fairness, and considerations of inclusivity.
  • The deadline is July 13th, 2020.
• DCL: EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research on AI and Society
  • Supported jointly with the Partnership on AI to fund high-risk, high-reward research at the intersection of the social and technical dimensions of AI, with priority given to collaborative projects that integrate computer/computational science with the social, behavioral, and economic sciences to expand understanding of the influences of AI on society or contribute technical innovations that overcome emerging social challenges.
  • Topics may include, but are not limited to:
    • Safety, robustness, and accountability of AI systems;
    • Bias and fairness of AI systems;
    • Intelligibility, explanation, and transparency of AI inferences;
    • Privacy challenges with AI development and use;
    • Sociotechnical challenges involving ethical considerations;
    • Economic impacts of AI on society; and
    • Social consequences of AI system deployments.
  • The deadline has passed, however it may be revised and re-issued in some form in FY 2021.

See the Division of Social & Economic Sciences and Directorate for Social, Behavioral, & Economic Sciences for more information.