Governments and firms are turning to philosophers and other scholars more and more in regard to the ethics of developing and regulating technology. Yet this engagement with ethics may be superficial, careless, or even manipulative—and the ethicists involved may not even be in a position to realize this. “Ethics-washing” can take several forms. In the following guest post, the authors (in alphabetical order)—Lisa Herzog (Groningen), Marijn Hoijtink (Antwerp), Gijs van Maanen (Tilburg), Ann-Katrien Oimann (KU Leuven), and Linnet Taylor (Tilburg)—describe some cases of it and some challenges in identifying it, and emphasize the need for collective action to address it. When There’s no Fun in Funding: External Research Money, Ethics-Washing, and Positive Academic Freedom by Lisa Herzog, Marijn Hoijtink, Gijs van Maanen, Ann-Katrien Oimann, Linnet Taylor For legal and ethics scholars, the recent boom in digital technologies has brought new challenges when it comes to navigating collaborations and funding opportunities. Consider the following situation, based on a real-life case. An assistant professor in law, let’s call her Sarah, gets invited to serve as ethics advisor in an international research project on digital surveillance technologies. Reading through the project description, Sarah quickly realizes that the project’s aims and methodology are contrary to legal and regulatory norms and problematic from a human rights perspective. They are also contrary to the findings from a decade of work in her own research. She refuses the invitation and explains the reasons why, but does not hear back from the Principal Investigator. A few months later, Sarah learns that the project has been granted, and sees with surprise that her name has been listed, during the grant review process, as ethics advisor. She writes to the project officer at the grant agency, explaining her views on the project and her refusal to participate. But she does not hear back from them, and the project goes ahead unhindered. Or take the following example, loosely based on work by Corinne Cath and Os Keyes. After many applications, Adam finds his dream PhD position: at a university not too far from where he lives, in a field that connects nicely with his Master’s program. His job for the upcoming four years is to reflect on responsible uses of AI..

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