The Center for Research Ethics at the University of Pittsburgh advances study of the ethical design, implementation, and implications of research to promote ethics in research and responsible use of research data and insights.
Approach
Center Fellows employ interdisciplinary methods—including methods familiar in the health humanities, as well as traditional methods of ethics and philosophy—to address ethical issues, explore social implications of their research, and develop best practices and educational materials relevant to their trainees, colleagues, and research participant co-designers.
Preparing not only the future research workforce, but also members of the public and patient populations to engage in co-design of research studies is a distinctive feature of the Center’s activities.
Also distinctive: Center Fellows are researchers and scholars interested in the ethical issues and social implications arising from their work, who are not themselves bioethicists or research ethicists. While the Center’s External Fellows are nationally recognized experts in research ethics, CRE Fellows internal to Pitt comprise clinical investigators, scientists, empirical researchers, and scholars who are committed to and intrigued by ethical issues in their research and who want to engage with the interdisciplinary field of research ethics.
