On Wednesday, September 19, 2018, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced plans to combat sexual harassment and other forms of harassment within the agency and organizations and field sites where NSF-funded research is conducted. The new policy, released on Friday, September 21, 2018, requires the 2,000 U.S. institutions of higher education and other organizations that receive NSF funds to report findings of sexual harassment, other forms of harassment, or sexual assault by researchers beginning October 21, 2018. NSF plans to add an award term and condition that spells out core obligations for awardees and imposes new reporting obligations.
The recent, highly publicized case of Jose Baselga, MD, PhD, is an important reminder of the need for faculty to disclose institutional and financial conflicts of interest. Baselga, a world-renowned oncologist and researcher, was forced to resign his position as chief medical officer of New York's Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center after failing to disclose payments from pharmaceutical and health care companies.