TechEthos
Ethics for Technologies with High Socio-Economic Impact
Objectives
TechEthos deals with the ethics of new and emerging technologies anticipated to have high socio-economic impact. Such technologies bring with them new ethical challenges and societal consequences that need to be addressed. TechEthos will address the growing ethical challenges and expectations regarding new technologies. The project will reconcile the needs of research and innovation and the legitimate concerns of the society while stimulating innovation and reducing socio-economic inequalities. To do so, it will especially engage with researchers and innovators, research ethics committees (RECs), research integrity (RI) bodies, civil society organisations (CSOs), policymakers and the public.
Outputs
- The project will develop guidance for the development and deployment to ensure the highest ethical standards at the EU and international levels
- It will carry out a horizon scan to identify three or four new technologies with high socio-economic impact
- it will then identify and analyse the ethical issues raised by the selected technologies and explore the views and attitudes of expert and lay stakeholders towards them and their ethical implications using scenarios and media analysis.
- The project will develop/refine/extend existing/proposed ethics frameworks, operational guidelines or Codes (e.g., developed in SIENNA, SHERPA, PANELFIT, SATORI and other projects) to enable the effective ethics governance of the technologies
Key project results/activities for RECs and ethics experts
The TechEthos project, covering Digital Extended Reality (DXR), neurotechnology (NT), and climate engineering (CE), explores the ethical concerns raised by these cutting-edge technologies. This project serves as a resource for RECs tasked with assessing the ethical dimensions of research proposals involving these emerging technologies. Specifically, D2.2 “Identification and specification of potential ethical issues and impacts and analysis of ethical issues” provides insight into the nature of the ethical dilemmas surrounding these technologies and outlines ethical values and principles aligned with an “ethics by design” approach, and D5.4 “Criteria for ethical review by RECs in emerging technology research” offers RECs operational guidance to assess the ethical implications of research protocols.
D5.4 emphasises the essential role of RECs in supporting ethical research in NT, DXR, and CE. However, it acknowledges that traditional RECs, designed primarily for biomedical research, face structural and topical challenges when evaluating research in these fields. Structural challenges included limitations to the scope of RECs, expertise amongst REC members, and a lack of adequate resources and guidelines for RECs, while topical challenges involved assessing data processing, fairness, autonomy, and private-sector involvement. Adapting the REC framework to address these challenges is essential to ensure the ethical governance of research in emerging technologies.
To enhance their capacity in evaluating the ethical dimensions of research projects involving new and emerging technologies, D5.4 recommends that RECs should:
- Encourage researchers to contemplate the potential societal and environmental repercussions of their research.
- Identify high-risk projects and carry out reviews commensurate with the levels of risk.
- In the case of high-risk projects, supplement the ex-ante review with additional ethical reflection mechanisms.
- Evaluate ethics-by-design roadmaps, where applicable.
- Ensure that the composition and expertise of REC members correspond with the REC's mandate.
- Foster connections with other RECs
- Participate in pertinent training programs
- Enhance transparency in REC decision-making processes.
Duration
January 2021 - December 2023
Website
Cordis Entry
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
