As Coronavirus Spreads, Universities Stall Their Research to Keep Human Subjects Safe

The Chronicle of Higher Education
Marc Parry
March 18, 2020

A basic calculation governs research on human beings: How do the benefits stack up against the risks?

The coronavirus pandemic doesn’t much alter that calculation for studies that can directly improve the health of seriously ill participants, such as trials of new cancer treatments.

But the pandemic could stall other researchers: neuroscientists who put people in MRI scanners to study normal brain functions, business professors who gather them for focus groups, oral historians who take their testimonies, criminal-justice scholars who interview people coming out of prisons. Those kinds of studies, which didn’t previously expose the participants to any risk, could now sicken them with Covid-19.

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NSF Creates New Research Security Chief Position

National Science Foundation
March 2, 2020


Rebecca Spyke Keiser, expert in international research issues, named as first chief of research security strategy and policy

The National Science Foundation has appointed Rebecca Spyke Keiser to the newly created position of chief of research security strategy and policy as part of its continuing effort to ensure the security of federally funded research while maintaining an open international collaboration.

In this role, Keiser will be tasked with providing the NSF director with policy advice on all aspects of research security strategy. She will also lead NSF’s efforts to develop and implement strategies to improve research security and the agency’s coordination with other federal agencies and the White House.

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