A former University of North Carolina Asheville research assistant alleged in a lawsuit this year that the university dismissed him from his job after he raised concerns about research misconduct to his bosses and a top school official.
Aidan Settman, a 24-year-old UNCA graduate, filed the lawsuit against the university in Buncombe County Superior Court in February. He alleged that research into a COVID-19-era health initiative — funded by more than $600,000 each from the state and the Dogwood Health Trust — was manipulated to make the program seem more successful than it was.
His complaint outlines a complex saga spanning 2020 to 2024. Settman, who was an independent contractor for UNCA, alleged that his efforts to push back on what he saw as colleagues’ shoddy research practices led to his termination…