German Reference Centre for Ethics in the Life Sciences (DRZE)
The DRZE is a national documentation and information centre for the entire field of ethics in the biomedical sciences in Germany.
The Rediscovery of Bioethics
Lessons Learned and Future Directions
Dirk Lanzerath / Aurélie Halsband (eds.)
In this anthology, the DRZE presents the contributions to the international symposium held to mark its 25th anniversary. How can bioethics, as a philosophically grounded and interdisciplinary discipline, respond to new challenges in medicine, biology and beyond?
Save the date!
DRZE Ethik-Forum 2026 „Blame yourself?“
Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf, Wolfram Henn, Sabine Salloch, Amelie Wuppermann and Stefan Huster will discuss the cost causation principle in medicine on 9 March 2026 in Bonn at the DRZE's interdisciplinary symposium.
More information coming soon!
Handbuch Ethik und Psychologie
New Handbook, edited by M. Bobbert and J. Sautermeister, with contributions from D. Lanzerath, L. Honnefelder, R. Wagner and S. Scholl.
DRZE Expert Report has been published open access
The new DRZE Expert Report (vol. 28) introduces "Ethics by Design" and explains the possibilities and limits of ethical technology design.
New employee
We warmly welcome Myrna Herschler as a Research Associate at the DRZE.
EU Project RE4GREEN: Convergences between environmental ethics and research ethics
In collaboration with Fabian Fischbach, the subproject “Analyze, identify, assess” published the article "Convergences and Gaps between Environmental Ethics, Climate Ethics, and Research Ethics: A Scoping Review"
The DRZE is a Central Research Institute of the University of Bonn. Upon the discontinuation of the BMBF’s funding of the project ‘Ethics in the Life Sciences’, the DRZE applied to be part of the ‘Akademienprogramm’. The project was admitted into the research programme of the German Scientific Academies on 1 January 2004, as a research project of the Project of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts.
It has the task:
- to scientifically elaborate the normative foundations of qualified judgement formation and to make them available in various formats;
- to prepare and make available information from a wide variety of fields on the current bioethical discussion in science, society and politics;
- to promote scientific networking and thus advance the German, European and international discourse.
In Focus
The short information In Focus enables interested non-specialists in particular to get a quick overview of the debate on a current bioethical topic.
Healthcare Data in Research
Imaging in Neuroscience
Expert Reports
The aim of the series Ethics in the Life Sciences - DRZE Expert Reports is to prepare ethical problem areas from the field of the life sciences in a scientifically sound manner for interdisciplinary and societal discourse by comprehensively presenting the respective state of research and discussion.
Ethics by Design
Julia Maria Mönig / Petra Grimm / Sebastian Bernhard / Hendrik Tenbrake / Julia Berg-Postweiler / Jennifer Bosen / Clara Lemke / Marie Mirsch / Charlotte Nolles / Calvin Röhl / Ann-Kristin Winkens / Carmen Leicht-Scholten
Bioeconomy
Christina Pinsdorf / Sandra Venghaus / Sascha Stark / Wiltrud Fischer / Peter-Tobias Stoll / Erik Gawel
Third-party funded projects
RE4GREEN
The DRZE is coordinating an EU-funded project on climate and environmental ethics in research and innovation.
irecs
The DRZE is coordinating an EU-funded project on research ethics in the context of new and emerging technologies.
STRATEGIC
The DRZE is coordinating an EU-funded project on co-creating digital health technology design in sub-Saharan Africa.
PRACC
The DRZE is coordinating BMFTR-funded project on challenges of climate change in the context of intergenerational justice and freedom.
FRAIM
The DRZE is involved in a BMFTR-funded project developing an ethical framework for the use of AI in neuromedicine.