The National Science Foundation, in a move to confront sexual abuse in academe, plans to require colleges and universities to tell it of any NSF-funded researcher who has been disciplined for any kind of harassment.
The policy, announced on Thursday, does not commit the NSF to any specific action once it learns of such cases. But the agency’s director, France A. Córdova, suggested the likelihood of suspensions or terminations of NSF grant awards.
“NSF expects to be notified immediately of that finding, so that we can take decisive actions as appropriate, using all the tools at our disposal,” Córdova said in a briefing with reporters.
The NSF has an annual budget of about $6 billion, spent largely on academic research. It plans to continue its primary reliance on colleges and universities to receive and adjudicate harassment complaints, Córdova said.
The new policy also includes provisions to ensure that anyone involved in NSF-funded research at any location, including remote outposts such a ships at sea and camps in Antarctica, is given opportunities to file complaints directly with the agency. In addition, it includes an expansion of web-based resources to assist such researchers. Córdova made clear the planned rule would require colleges and universities to report only actual findings of harassment, or provisional actions such as suspensions pending further investigation, and not require reporting of initial allegations.
Elizabeth L. Hillman, president of Mills College and a member of a continuing National Academies study of sexual harassment in academe, said she backs efforts to align research funding with other responses to sexual harassment. Hillman warned, however, against setting up a system in which others who rely on a grant could be hurt if reporting an offender causes the entire grant to be withdrawn.
Córdova appeared to anticipate such situations, saying responses under the new NSF plan could include replacing a lead investigator and allowing a grant to continue.
An Unusual Policy
The NSF’s mandatory reporting requirement is expected to take effect after a period of review that includes a process for receiving outside comments. When enacted, the policy stands to be unique among major public and private funders of academic research.
The federal law known as Title IX does require institutions to prevent sexual assault. But colleges and universities currently need only to state that they are in compliance with the law and not necessarily report specific cases to funders, said Rhonda J. Davis, head of the NSF’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion.
The National Institutes of Health, with an annual budget of about $36 billion, has policies requiring its own staff to report harassment incidents, but without requirements that touch directly on its outside grant recipients. The NIH is, however, working to develop a new antiharassment policy, an agency official said.
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the nation’s largest private supporter of academic biomedical research, does investigate allegations involving its workers, which the institute defines as including its funded researchers. But that policy also is largely limited to complaints that are brought to it, an institute official said.
Paul Basken covers university research and its intersection with government policy. He can be found on Twitter @pbasken, or reached by email at paul.basken@chronicle.com.
