Academic Authority and Institutional Accountability
A dual governance model separates corporate and financial authority from academic decision-making.
Institutional Governance
Board of Directors
The Board of Directors serves as the Center's corporate governing authority. Its responsibilities include financial oversight, institutional sustainability, budget approval, grant acceptance, legal and compliance oversight, and other corporate matters.
The Board does not determine research conclusions, override academic admissions decisions, or exercise control over academic evaluation.
Academic Council
The Academic Council is the highest academic authority of Applied Science Center. Its responsibilities include admission of Research Fellows, establishment and interpretation of academic standards, annual academic evaluations, academic discipline and research-integrity matters, and approval of Research Fellowship Certificates.
Academic Independence
No donor, grant provider, or financial contributor has the right to determine research conclusions, review research for the purpose of influencing its substance, require favorable outcomes, or suppress findings.
Donor Firewall
Donors may not specify desired research conclusions, require predetermined outcomes, exercise substantive control over draft manuscripts, require pre-publication approval, withdraw funding because of disagreement with research findings, or require suppression of unfavorable findings.
Ethics & Conflict of Interest
Research Fellows and members of the Academic Council are required to disclose relevant conflicts of interest. Potential conflicts may include employment, consultancy relationships, advisory roles, financial interests, patent interests, sponsored engagements, or other relationships relevant to the research.
Institutional Compliance
The Center maintains internal safeguards concerning donor due diligence, sanctions screening, lawful source-of-funds review, conflicts of interest, institutional recordkeeping, data governance, whistleblower protection, and prevention of inaccurate representations concerning the Center's academic status.