Nuffield Council on Bioethics announces membership of research in global health emergencies working group

As part of a major new inquiry into what is ethically acceptable during emergencies, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics has established a new working group to examine how research may be conducted ethically in global health emergencies. CGHH’s Director Sanjoy Bhattacharya (Professor in the History of Medicine, Department of History), has been invited to become a member of this group, working alongside international experts in disaster and epidemic response, health systems research, drug development, medicine, ethics, political philosophy, law, data sharing, and community engagement. The working group will be chaired by Professor Michael Parker, Director of the Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities, and the Ethox Centre, at the University of Oxford. Biographies and full details of working group members are now available, and the group will hold their first meeting in February to discuss plans for the project.

The working group will consider how research may ethically be conducted in global health emergencies, and how it may most appropriately be integrated into the wider response to such emergencies. It will report on and make recommendations to improve the contribution that ethically conducted research may make to emergency response in the future. The full terms of reference (which are currently in draft form) are available on the project website.