KINGSTON, R.I. — October 11, 2005 — The University of Rhode Island’s Research Office will sponsor a weeklong series of events Oct. 17 through 21 to celebrate the wide range of research conducted by URI faculty and staff. Included will be panel discussions with leading researchers, grant-writing and intellectual property workshops, and several poster sessions illustrating current research projects.

All the events are free and open to the public.

“We have an increasing amount of research going on throughout the University,” said Lynn Pasquerella, URI vice provost for graduate studies, research and outreach. “The goal of Research Week is to highlight the range and quality of research taking place at the University being done by undergraduates, graduate students and our faculty. We also want to let people outside the university community know about the many resources available on campus and how we can be useful to them. ”

URI researchers receive an average of $63 million annually in grant funding for their research.

Each day of Research Week will address a different theme. Monday, Oct. 17 will focus on graduate student research and will include a panel discussion with two of URI’s most famous researchers, marine archaeologists Robert Ballard and Rod Mather, at 9 a.m. Graduate student research posters will be on display from 9 to noon. Both events will be in the Memorial Union Ballroom.

Tuesday, Oct. 18 will feature a workshop on research ethics at 1:30 p.m. at the University Club with John Stone of the National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care at Tuskegee University. His talk will focus on issues of race and ethnicity in human subject research. Stone will be addressing the controversy surrounding whether it is permissible to exclude African Americans from certain cardiac clinical trials and the implications for distributive justice.

“We want to make sure that research ethics are woven into the fabric of the University culture, and this workshop is one way we can do that,” Pasquerella said. Among the issues that will be discussed are the ethical issues involved in the use of human subjects in research, ethical animal care, conflicts of interest, and the appropriate use of data.

Wednesday, Oct. 19 will focus on undergraduate research and will feature a poster session of undergraduate student research from 3 to 4 p.m. in the Memorial Union Ballroom. A workshop on mentoring undergraduate researchers will run from 1 to 3 p.m. in the same location.

Patents and intellectual property is the theme on Oct. 20 and will include a research grant writing workshop at 9:30 a.m. and an intellectual property workshop at 3 p.m., both at the University Club. Posters illustrating recent patented research will be on display from 4 to 6 p.m.

Friday, Oct. 21 will focus on women in science and will feature a panel discussion with URI women researchers at 11 a.m. in the University Club and a cabaret performance of “Science and Glitz: a Differential Equation” at 3 p.m. in the Coastal Institute Building. The cabaret was written by Judith Swift, a URI professor of theater and interim vice provost.

For a complete schedule of events or more information, call the Research Office at 874-2599 or email outreach@etal.uri.edu.