Ensuring that biopreservation technologies are ethical.
Outcome/Accomplishment
A component of the NSF-funded Engineering Research Center (NSF ERC) for Advanced Technologies for the Preservation of Biological Systems (NSF ATP-Bio) is Ethics & Public Policy (EPP). EPP’s mission is to ensure that the development and deployment of biopreservation technologies are guided by rigorous ethical, legal, and societal analysis. In April 2025, the journal Accountability in Research published “Perceptions of Network-Level Ethics in an Engineering Research Center: Analysis of Ethical Issues & Practices Reported by Scientific & Engineering Participants,” which was the culmination of the EPP group’s work on an NSF-funded grant.
Impact/Benefits
The work of the EPP has advanced progress toward a research ecosystem where ethical and policy considerations are deeply integrated into every stage of technology development, ensuring that ATP-Bio’s scientific advancements serve the public good, anticipate societal impacts, and earn public trust.
Explanation/Background
In September 2022, NSF awarded the ATP-Bio ERC a grant entitled “NetEthics: Building Tools & Training to Advance Responsible Conduct in Complex Research Networks Pioneering Novel Technologies.” The NetEthics project, which ended in August 2025, sought to advance the responsible conduct of large, complex engineering research projects such as those at NSF ERCs, which involve multidisciplinary teams networked across multiple universities and other institutions to develop new technologies. Tools to help these teams conduct research ethically and develop technologies for societal benefit are lacking. Researchers regularly face difficult issues such as how to reconcile conflicting ethical approaches across the network, how to ensure ethical and respectful laboratory leadership and mentoring, and how to create network-wide processes for resolving disputes. Network leaders also face challenges in building community and stakeholder relationships, ensuring responsible commercialization, and making sure that the entire research network fulfills ethical responsibilities such as responsible conduct of research (RCR) with human participants, ethical treatment of animals in research, and avoiding conflicts of interest. The NetEthics project worked with a group of national experts to systematically identify key ethical values to guide network ethics, using the ATP-Bio NSF ERC as a laboratory to study network ethics in action.
Location
Minneapolis, Minnesotawebsite
Start Year
Biotechnology and Healthcare
Biotechnology and Healthcare
Lead Institution
Core Partners
Fact Sheet
Outcome/Accomplishment
A component of the NSF-funded Engineering Research Center (NSF ERC) for Advanced Technologies for the Preservation of Biological Systems (NSF ATP-Bio) is Ethics & Public Policy (EPP). EPP’s mission is to ensure that the development and deployment of biopreservation technologies are guided by rigorous ethical, legal, and societal analysis. In April 2025, the journal Accountability in Research published “Perceptions of Network-Level Ethics in an Engineering Research Center: Analysis of Ethical Issues & Practices Reported by Scientific & Engineering Participants,” which was the culmination of the EPP group’s work on an NSF-funded grant.
Location
Minneapolis, Minnesotawebsite
Start Year
Biotechnology and Healthcare
Biotechnology and Healthcare
Lead Institution
Core Partners
Fact Sheet
Impact/benefits
The work of the EPP has advanced progress toward a research ecosystem where ethical and policy considerations are deeply integrated into every stage of technology development, ensuring that ATP-Bio’s scientific advancements serve the public good, anticipate societal impacts, and earn public trust.
Explanation/Background
In September 2022, NSF awarded the ATP-Bio ERC a grant entitled “NetEthics: Building Tools & Training to Advance Responsible Conduct in Complex Research Networks Pioneering Novel Technologies.” The NetEthics project, which ended in August 2025, sought to advance the responsible conduct of large, complex engineering research projects such as those at NSF ERCs, which involve multidisciplinary teams networked across multiple universities and other institutions to develop new technologies. Tools to help these teams conduct research ethically and develop technologies for societal benefit are lacking. Researchers regularly face difficult issues such as how to reconcile conflicting ethical approaches across the network, how to ensure ethical and respectful laboratory leadership and mentoring, and how to create network-wide processes for resolving disputes. Network leaders also face challenges in building community and stakeholder relationships, ensuring responsible commercialization, and making sure that the entire research network fulfills ethical responsibilities such as responsible conduct of research (RCR) with human participants, ethical treatment of animals in research, and avoiding conflicts of interest. The NetEthics project worked with a group of national experts to systematically identify key ethical values to guide network ethics, using the ATP-Bio NSF ERC as a laboratory to study network ethics in action.