Increasingly public and private funders recognize the critical importance of incorporating ethical and societal analysis and considerations into the design of science, technology, engineering, math, and medicine (STEM) research for the goals of advancing equity and justice. Despite this growing demand, there is little guidance on best practices for fostering this integration or for evaluating its effects. This initiative—a national and international collaboration—aims to clarify, review, and revitalize the roles and value of engaging bioethicists and scholars in the social sciences, humanities, and the arts in STEM research. It proceeds in three phases: background research; drafting of LEED Principles and Practices; and international discussion and write-up of LEED Principles and Practices. It is our hope that LEED will facilitate the creation of a cross-sector,  cross-national effort to reformulate the meaning of good science in a manner that creates sustained organizational culture and policy changes that center diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), the ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) of research, and the goals of advancing equity and justice.

Learn more in this campus news article: National Science Foundation grant will help establish ethics and equity best practices for emerging forms of science and technology and in this CellPress publication, “Trustworthiness matters: Building equitable and ethical science” that announces the collaborative project.

This project is supported in part by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the UC Santa Cruz Office of Research, and the UC Santa Cruz Institute for Social Transformation.

If you would like to help us realize the LEED Principles and Practices, donate now! Central to the success of our students is their ability to work on core Science & Justice projects like LEED. With your help, we can offer fellowships that support this critical dimension of the training of future leaders in the emerging field of Science and Justice. With $10,000 we can:

• Support undergraduate research on existing ELSI and DEI informed guidelines, frameworks and ethical principles ($2,500).
• Support a graduate researcher to provide mentorship and work with undergraduates to analyze/code results and prepare findings for presentation and publication ($2,500).
• Provide a graduate student with the opportunity to gain experience and professional development training by participating in the development of LEED Principles & Practices ($5,000).