Training Material for Ethics

Study on National, International and Professional Training Material for Ethics in Research

Abstract
European Commission's The Science and Society Action Plan identifies that there exists amongst researchers an uneven level of awareness of the ethical dimensions of their activities and thus is committed to promote awareness and integrity of researchers (Action 31).

Providing excellent training material for ethics in research will form one important aspect of this work. In order to do so an important first step is to survey existing training material in order to identify: what resources currently exist, who is producing the material, who is the target group (receiver) of it, in what field, the extend to which it meets current needs, what gaps still exist and how these can best be filed.

The purpose of the study is

1. to gather and provide an overview of existing training resources for ethics in research in target countries,
2. to give an overall and specific evaluation of this material as to its quality and comprehensiveness,
3. to analyse the data in order to identify material that would be appropriate for training not only in the EU Member States, EU Candidate Countries, but also for cross-cultural exchange,
4. to identify the best training material providers,
5. to identify where gaps exists and draw recommendations for improvements and additions that would be necessary to obtain a satisfactory basic stock of such material. The survey will not cover university degrees in the subject of ethics, but will include the material addressing additional training of non-specialists in the area.
   

Co-ordinator
The German Reference Centre for Ethics in the Life Sciences (Deutsches Referenzzentrum für Ethik in den Biowissenschaften, DRZE), Bonn

Partner
The Institute of Science and Ethics (Institut für Wissenschaft und Ethik e. V.), IWE

Funded by
European Commission, Directorate C - Science and Society, Ethics and Science
Tender No: RTD-C3-2002-02/1

Funding period
January 2003 to August 2003

Contact person at DRZE
Dr. Dirk Lanzerath (Project Director)
lanzerath@drze.de     +49 (0)228 3364 1930    +49 (0)228 3364 1940