Centre for Professional Ethics

Description

The Centre of Professional Ethics’ projects and activities are designed to maximise benefit for society. Members work collaboratively with a wide range of stakeholders to ensure lasting impact and the sustainability of their work. For instance, the leadership team is responsible for the TRUST Family of Ethics Codes (https://www.globalcodeofconduct.org/), which include the TRUST Code – A Global Code of Conduct for Equitable Research Partnerships. The Code aims to prevent helicopter research and 'ethics dumping', i.e. the export of research, which would be prohibited or severely restricted in a high-income country, to a low-or-middle-income country.

The Code has been adopted by high-profile funders (e.g. the European Commission) and publishers, e.g. it forms the basis of NATURE's approach to ethics and inclusion in global research.

The Centre for Professional Ethics, established in 1993, is one of the oldest ethics research centres in the world and has gained a reputation for excellence in various areas. Of key importance for the Centre is that projects have an impact in the real world and are of practical benefit.

In the last 20 years, the Centre for Professional Ethics has co‐ordinated large‐scale, international projects on benefit sharing; community consent and indigenous populations; ethics dumping in international collaborative research; ethics in science policy; access to essential drugs; performance‐based pharmaceutical rewards as a supplement to the intellectual property rights system; responsible research and innovation, and research ethics and integrity during major crises.

What also makes the work stand out is the very close collaboration with marginalized populations, in particular, since 2003 with the San people of South Africa and since 2007 with sex workers in the informal settlements in and around Nairobi.

The San have been one of the most researched communities in the world and prior misconduct by researchers and other outsiders have left them feeling exploited. 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. The San were supported, by the Centre, to develop the first ever research ethics code by an Indigenous population in Africa, the San Code of Research Ethics, one of four in the TRUST Family of Ethics Codes.

Currently active

Yes

Offers funding

No, this infrastructure does not provide funding.

Founding year

1993

Contact details

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University affiliation(s)

University of Central Lancashire
Preston