The NSF expects all of its grantees to:
- Maintain harassment-free research workplaces.
- Establish and maintain clear and unambiguous standards of behavior.
- Establish notification pathways for all personnel, including students, regardless of workplace location.
- Provide accessible and evident means for reporting violations, including reporting when personnel are engaged in conferences, workshops, field work, or other research facilities.
- Ensure institutional due diligence with timely investigations of allegations and corrective actions.
FIU is required to report to the NSF if:
- A PI or Co-PI is placed on administrative leave related to an investigation of an alleged violation or a finding/determination demonstrating a violation of awardee policies or codes of conduct, statutes, regulations, or executive orders relating to sexual harassment, other forms of harassment, or sexual assault.
- It imposes any administrative action on a PI or Co-PI related to an investigation of an alleged violation or a finding/determination demonstrating a violation of awardee policies or codes of conduct, statutes, regulations, or executive orders relating to sexual harassment, other forms of harassment, or sexual assault.
- It issues a finding/determination regarding a PI or Co-PI demonstrating a violation of awardee policies or codes of conduct, statutes, regulations, or executive orders relating to sexual harassment, other forms of harassment, or sexual assault.
FIU must report as a direct recipient of NSF funds or as a subrecipient of an NSF award that includes the term. FIU must submit the report to NSF within ten (10) business days from the placement on administrative leave, imposition of administrative action, or the date of the finding/determination. The report submissions will be done by the Office of Research and Economic Development based on information provided by the Office of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Access (IDEA).
After receiving and reviewing the information, NSF will consult with the institution and may:
- Initiate the substitution of the PI or a Co-PI,
- Reduce the award funding amount, or
- Suspend or terminate the award.
As part of their review process, the NSF will consider:
- Safety and security of personnel supported by the NSF award.
- Overall impact to NSF-funded activity.
- Continued advancement of taxpayer-funded investments in science and scientists.
- Whether the awardee has taken appropriate action(s) to ensure continuity of science and that continued progress can be made under funded project.
The requirement applies to:
- All grant personnel (PI, Co-PI roles trigger reporting requirement).
- All locations where grant work is undertaken (including conferences, workshops, field sites, on- and off-campus research facilities, online).
- All NSF awards and funding amendments to existing awards made on or after October 22, 2018.
Conferences, Workshops or Symposia
It is National Science Foundation policy to foster harassment-free environments wherever science is conducted, including at NSF-sponsored conferences, workshops, and symposia. The NSF Proposal Award Policy and Procedure Guide (PAPPG), effective February 25, 2019, requires applicants requesting NSF funds for the purpose of carrying out conferences, workshops, and symposia to have a policy or code-of-conduct that addresses sexual harassment, other forms of harassment, or sexual assault, and that includes clear and accessible means of reporting violations of the policy or code-of-conduct.
Recipients of NSF funds to carry out conferences, workshops, and symposia must also provide this policy or code of conduct to all event participants prior to the event and at the conference/workshop/ symposium itself.
If you have an NSF funded project to carry out a conference, workshop or symposia then the following statement should be added to all conference brochures and be posted at the conference site:
Florida International University is committed to encouraging and sustaining a learning and living environment that is free from harassment, violence, and prohibited discrimination based on sex, gender, gender expression, gender identity, sexual orientation, sexual misconduct, domestic and dating partner violence and/or stalking. See full regulation at https://hr.fiu.edu/employees-affiliates/employee-concerns/#sexual-harassment. Individuals wishing to report a violation of this regulation should contact the Office of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Access (IDEA) at 305-348-2785 or submit a Discrimination Complaint Processing Form at https://hr.fiu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/61/2016/11/Discrimination_Complaint_Processing_Form.pdf.
Safe and Inclusive Working Environments for Off-Campus or Off-Site Research
It is NSF policy to foster safe and harassment-free environments wherever science is conducted. NSF’s policy recognizes that a community effort is essential to eliminate sexual and other forms of harassment in science and to build inclusive scientific climates where people can learn, grow, and thrive. Accordingly, for each proposal that proposes to conduct research off-campus or off site, the University must complete a certification that the organization has a plan in place for each proposal that describes how the following types of behavior will be addressed:
- Abuse of any person, including, but not limited to, harassment, stalking, bullying, or hazing of any kind, whether the behavior is carried out verbally, physically, electronically, or in written form; or
- Conduct that is unwelcome, offensive, indecent, obscene, or disorderly.
This plan should also identify steps the proposing organization will take to nurture an inclusive off-campus or off-site working environment, e.g., trainings; processes to establish shared team definitions of roles, responsibilities, and culture, e.g., codes of conduct; and field support, such as mentor/mentee support mechanisms, regular check-ins, and/or developmental events
Communications within team and to the organization should be considered in the plan, minimizing singular points within the communications pathway (e.g., a single person overseeing access to a single satellite phone), and any special circumstances such as the involvement of multiple organizations or the presence of third parties in the working environment should be taken into account. The process or method for making incident reports as well as how any reports received will be resolved should also be accounted for.
The organization’s plan for the proposal must be disseminated to individuals participating in the off-campus or off-site research prior to departure. Proposers should not submit the plan to NSF for review.
In an effort to facilitate the process, the Office of Research and Economic Development (ORED) has created a template plan that can be used by PIs. The template ORED has adopted is in line with plan templates adopted by other NSF funded institutions.
The template plan is available for download on the ORED forms page at https://research.fiu.edu/forms/ under the Proposal Preparation Forms section. The plan is composed of background information, institutional resources and questions required to be answered for each project. The plan should be uploaded into the attachments section of the ePRAF of your proposal submission but not submitted to the NSF unless specifically requested to do so. If the project is awarded, the plan should be provided to all personnel on the NSF funded project prior to departing for off-campus or off-site research activities.
A new question will be added on January 30th, 2023 into the ePRAF to alert proposers of this requirement and the needed to adhere to said regulations.
Additional details regarding this new requirement from the NSF are available at https://beta.nsf.gov/policies/pappg/23-1/ch-2-proposal-preparation#2E9.