Neuroethics Competition for Neuroscience Trainees!
The goal of this competition, sponsored by 黑料门University Chicago’s Dana Program for Neuroscience & Society, is to encourage neuroscience trainees to spearhead reflection on the ethical ramifications of neuroscience discoveries and neurotechnological advances, particularly as related to their research. We strongly encourage trainees to reflect on the ethical or social ramifications of their own research or research area, but any topic addressing an ethical issue resulting from a neuroscience discovery or neurotechnological advance is allowed.
Top Prize: If the work is presented at the next Society for Neuroscience (SFN) meeting as a theme J poster or talk, winners will receive $2000 to cover expenses. If the work is not presented at the SFN meeting, the winner will receive $500. There is one top prize for this competition. The PI of the awarded team will receive $200 to spend on a lab gathering or to distribute to non-lead lab members who helped.
Eligibility: Lead-author must be a trainee (undergraduate to postdoc) working in a laboratory in the Chicago area. All teams must have at least one neuroscience professor in the senior author position. A PI may not appear on more than two submissions. Only one lead-author submission is permitted per trainee. Involvement of all personnel within a lab is encouraged. Only the lead author can receive the $2000 award. Ethicists and other non-scientist professionals with relevant expertise may be consulted and should be listed as co-authors if they impacted the work. Ethicists are allowed to be co-authors on an unlimited number of submissions.
Topics: while developing your topic, we encourage you to start with your current neuroscience work and then reflect on the ethical/social implications of that work. Consider outlining your submission as follows: a brief explanation of your research, a reflection on the ethical and/or social impact of your work, and any “next steps,” whether those are policy or advocacy steps, or simply ethical/social issues to be further considered. You may also choose to develop a presentation on an ethical issue in neuroscience research that is unrelated to the research you are doing. There are plenty to choose from: whether neurological impairment should mitigate penalties for criminal actions; whether environmental factors (sound, light, microplastic or chemical pollution) that impact the nervous system should be regulated; whether dementia patients should be allowed to change their end-of-life plans; and so on. In developing your work, we encourage you to cite relevant neuroethics literature, but mastery of the literature is not required.
Format: Submissions should be a video of a narrated PowerPoint/Google presentation, provided as an MP4. The maximum duration of the video is 10 minutes. To request an upload link please email Dr. Bill Rochlin (wrochli@luc.edu), 黑料门U. Chicago Biology Dept. Please identify the PI and coauthors.
Judging: The judging committee will include neuroscientists, ethicists, and other professionals in related fields; as well as community members, so presentations should be engaging and accessible to both experts and laypersons.
Criteria: The significance of the topic, the effectiveness of the presentation, and the relevance to society at large or the Chicagoland community.
Due date: May 15th, 2025. Judging will be completed by May 26th.