Science and Engineering Ethics, Volume 8, Issue 4, 2002 483 Each and every investigator or engineer arrives at a problem with his or her own history and current situation as their occupational baggage. Embedded interests abound; the need to retain a job for the salary it provides; the desire for promotion; the wish for esteem from colleagues; the obligation to reciprocate for a previous service rendered; the thought that a sacrifice on this occasion may lead to a benefit at the next opportunity; the enhancement of self-image from solving a problem others found intractable; the psycho-social bias derived from politics or attitude; scepticism of the work of others; this list is unlimited. One may as easily compose a list of inducements that derive from external sources; the offer of money, position, preferment, support for achieving ambitions, the prevailing dominant paradigm, power and publication. Many of these driving forces act at the same time in relation to the same project. Some of the influences that impinge on an individual are wholly conducive to the appropriate and successful accomplishment of the mission. Others distort the outcome and satisfy needs other than those of the immediate operator. When the latter occurs we can clearly identify a conflict of interest where the more powerful and resourceproviding outside agency has leant on the operator to generate data or products that are more to the advantage of the agent than they are to the society as a whole. This generation of bias by the expression of the interests of a funding agency will generate a spectrum of responses from those that enhance the value of the project to the society to those that may lead to social harm. As more and more academics are encouraged to interact with private, voluntary, charitable and public sector clients who have clear and unique agendas of their own making, it is well for society as a whole to be aware of pressures that may cause distortion of work programs in directions that are antithetical to social well-being. This awareness can only be achieved by full disclosure of all effective sources of influence. These could be of the internal variety and be based on the particular driving forces of the individual in addition to those imposed by an external or funding agency. There maybe sources of bias whose disclosure may cause a dilemma. The race, religion, ethnic origin, marital status, health history, legal past and mental history may be Editorial On Dealing with Bias