New fellows to further research integrity
The first cohort of Innovative Research and Ethical Impact Fellows launched this fall, its members charged with honing their abilities to identify and address ethical research-related issues and then share that skill set with colleagues across the university.
A new group of leaders represent the next chapter of research integrity at Virginia Tech.
This fall, the university launched its first cohort of Innovative Research and Ethical Impact Fellows. The 34 members span various colleges, ranks, and duties across Virginia Tech and are charged with honing their abilities to identify and address ethical research-related issues, and then share that skill set with colleagues.
“One of the things we know is that people often don’t address ethical issues because they’re not exactly sure how to have the conversation and they fear it could get out of hand,” said Lisa M. Lee, senior associate vice president of research and innovation. “We’re providing practice in both identifying and addressing such concerns as a way of empowering our researchers with the confidence to not only have those conversations, but also spread that sense of self-efficacy among their peers.”
The cohort is the latest aspect of the five-year Innovative Research and Ethical Impact project, which is funded by a National Science Foundation Institutional Transformation grant that Virginia Tech received in 2023. As the project principal investigator, Lee is helping guide the project, which aims to leverage researchers’ individual expertise and networks to advance the collective culture of ethical work at the university.
Throughout the semester, the fellows will begin to build a community of practice by participating in four workshops that explore ethical dimensions of research, ranging from developing the research questions and methods to the impact of sharing finalized data and conclusions. The workshops will help the faculty members solidify their understanding and comfort with these topics so they can both model and discuss best practices with their colleagues, mentees, and students.
Lee said the fellows were invited because their peers recognized them as successful colleagues whom they emulate or from whom they seek advice. The project team purposefully invited faculty at various stages of their careers and in roles spanning research, academics, and administration to help ensure that ethical research practices developed transcend the traditional silos of higher education.
Having an opportunity to help strengthen Virginia Tech’s research culture was one of the primary motivators for Robin White to accept her invitation to become a fellow.
“The mission of the program is something that I think is really important for the long term,” said White, professor in the School of Animal Sciences. “It’s really something I want to contribute to.”
White said she also appreciated the program’s focus on faculty sharing their insights with each other in an organic manner.
“I really applaud them for taking this approach,” White said. “With any sort of large-scale cultural shift, it always comes down to people and their motivations. You get a lot further with using carrots and building community than you do with sticks.”
It’s a similar approach to the one the Division of Scholarly Integrity and Research Compliance has taken with its Notable Scholars Promoting Innovative Research and Ethics (NSPIRE) Lecture Series. Held multiple times each semester, each event features Virginia Tech scholars sharing their work, the ethical decisions they often face, and how they navigate them, and both presenters and attendees earn professional development credentials.
“Rather than having an administrator talk about responsible conduct or ethical considerations in research, our research community has an opportunity to hear from those they can relate to, those who are actually conducting research and making research decisions,” said Iris Jenkins, director of the Research Integrity and Consultation Program. “Our speakers also come from a variety of research backgrounds so we can show that despite differences in expertise and methods, there are ethical challenges in all areas and addressing them is critical for research excellence.”
Each semester, the division also invites a notable scholar or subject matter expert to share similar insights related to ethical scholarship and research, the responsibilities of those doing this work, and its impact on the world through the Research Integrity and Scholarly Excellence (RISE) Lecture Series.
The next RISE lecture will feature Josh Fessel, a physician-scientist who recently left his position as chief medical officer and director of a National Institutes of Health after what he described as a personal moral conflict with federal directives.
Since then, Fessel has dedicated himself to repairing the biomedical research field and public health as well as institutional rebuilding in the United States. His talk, “Finding Our Footing When the Ground Shakes: The Importance of Integrity in Science and Scientists,” will take place from 11 a.m. to noon Friday, Nov. 14, in Steger Hall Auditorium. A Q&A will be held just prior from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m.
Each of these efforts are each reflective of Virginia Tech’s ongoing commitment to remain rooted in its history of ethical and impactful research and scholarship. And the NSPIRE Lecture Series and the fellows programs are an extension of the faculty-led model developed by Lee and Kory Trott, former director of the Research Integrity and Consultation Program. The pair co-authored a paper on the model, which was published in Accountability in Research Ethics, Integrity and Policy, in June.
Lee said there’s already been some crossover between the fellows and NSPIRE series, with some fellows also serving speakers. Like the lecture series, the fellows’ program will be a reoccurring effort with new cohorts of researchers invited to join each year for the remainder of the grant.
“When we started that early model, we really just wanted to build on Virginia Tech’s tradition of researchers working hard and doing things the right way,” Lee said. “And now because of the NSF [National Science Foundation] institutional transformation grant, we’re able to scale it to the entire university. That’s really exciting.”
Original study: DOI: 10.1080/08989621.2025.2517070
