The Centre of Professional Ethics’ projects and activities are designed to maximise impact and benefit. We work collaboratively with a wide range of stakeholders to ensure lasting impact and the sustainability of our work.

For example, through the TRUST project, we have worked with the San people of South Africa to develop their own Code of Research Ethics. This is believed to be the first code of conduct for research developed by an indigenous group in Africa. The San call themselves ‘first people’; they have the oldest DNA of all humans on the earth and are therefore of great interest to researchers for the genes, their knowledge and their ways.

The San have been one of the most commonly researched peoples in the world but many things that have happened in the past have left the San feeling exploited by researchers. Lack of respect for local traditions and culture; lack of care for local needs; lack of any benefit to the San themselves and lack of transparency in the researchers’ dealings have been commonplace. 

From now on, all researchers who wish to work with the San must abide by their Code of Research Ethics.

You can watch a short film about this development to the right.

Funded by the European Commission, Horizon 2020, Co-ordinator.

The goal of the TRUST Project is to catalyse a global collaborative effort to improve adherence to high ethical standards in research around the world.

Achieving equity in international research is one of the pressing concerns of the 21st century. Many international groups and organisations are working on governance frameworks and standards to guide research activities after progressive globalization. However, their efforts are disparate and lacking a guiding vision. In an interdisciplinary collaboration between multi-level ethics bodies, policy advisors/makers, civil society organisations, funding organisations, industry and academic scholars from a range of disciplines, this project combines long-standing, highly respected efforts to build international governance structures with new exciting network opportunities in Europe, India, Sub-Saharan Africa, China and Russia.

Funded by the European Research Council

Every year approximately ten million people around the world die from lack of access to lifesaving medicines. High prices generated by the intellectual property rights (IPR) system are partly responsible, leaving patients – particularly those in developing countries and emerging markets – unable to access the medicines they need.

Funded by the European Commission, Framework 7, Co-ordinator

ProGReSS concentrates on the underexplored and least converging part of responsible research and innovation (RRI), namely achieving societal desirability. The project links existing international networks of RRI from all continents with European partners and societal actors to achieve the following objectives:

• Link existing international networks of RRI with relevant societal actors on a global scale to focus innovation on societal desirability.
• Complete a major fact-finding mission comparing science funding strategies and innovation policies in Europe, the US, China, Japan, India, Australia, and South Africa.
• Advocate a European normative model for RRI globally, using constitutional values as a driver to inform societal desirability.
• Develop a strategy for fostering the convergence of regional innovation systems at the global level.