(CHANGER) CHAllenges and innovative chaNGes in research Ethics Reviews

Project funded by the European Union’s Horizon WIDERA programme
Grant Agreement n. 101131683
Duration: 36 months
Start date: 01/01/2024
The project official website

Trust in Science and Technology, as well as the utility and acceptability of their innovative outcomes, is crucially dependent on the ethical qualities of the research. New technologies, transformative research and new research players constantly change the realm of research, and as science and technology progress, ethical challenges also continuously evolve. In the changing research environment, new human rights and principles are arising, impactful risks emerge, and new questions must be asked of the research.

Research Ethics Committees are the link between researchers, research participants and society.  Through the process of ethics review of research projects, they ensure respect for values during research. However, existing models of ethics reviews are increasingly challenged by changing research practices and the emergence of new technologies with great social and economic impact.

To address these issues, CHANGER intends to promote changes in research ethics reviews by strengthening the capacities of researchers to incorporate ethical judgements in the project design and implementation, and by supporting capacity building of Research Ethics Committees to address new challenges posed by new technologies and new research practices.

The project consortium includes 15 partners led by the National Center for Scientific Research Demokritos.

News

The CHANGER project Kick-off Meeting was held at NCSR Demokritos’ campus in Athens, Greece, on 22 and 23 January 2024. In the opening session Isidoros Karatzas, Head of the Research Ethics and Integrity Sector of the European Commission, highlighted the expectation that the project will develop novel solutions to guide scientific research and innovation in a rapidly changing scientific and technological environment. During the meeting, the different work packages of the project were presented and discussed and the activity plan for the first part of the project was analysed in detail. K&I was represented by Alfonso Alfonsi and Fabio Feudo ...