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 example, through the TRUST project, they led the development of the Global Code of Conduct for Research in Resource-Poor Settings, which aims to prevent '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 is now a mandatory reference document for recipients of EU funding and forms the basis of NATURE's new approach to ethics and inclusion in global research.

The Centre for Professional Ethics is an internationally renowned research institution. Established in 1993, it is one of the oldest ethics research centres in the world and has gained a reputation for excellence in various areas of ethics, especially global justice and human rights and medicine. Since 2004, the majority of projects and activities have dealt with questions of global research ethics, benefit sharing, and access to medicines. Of key importance for the Centre is that projects have an impact in the real world and are of practical benefit.

In the last fifteen 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; and responsible research and innovation.

Since 2003, the Centre has worked with the San people of South Africa, most recently in supporting the development of 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, according to a NATURE article.

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

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
Fylde Rd
Preston
PR1 2HE