International collaboration to meet ethical challenges

How do we meet the ethical challenges posed by stem cell research and other developments in the life sciences? How do we manage an ageing society? Uppsala University and Newcastle University have formed a strategic collaboration to meet these and other ethical challenges.

Ethical challenges transcend national borders and are best addressed by international research collaborations. For example, many countries face the problem of how to prioritise limited health care resources in an ageing society and how far to pursue stem cell research as a solution to a range of medical conditions. While the media is one vehicle through which the social and ethical concerns raised by these issues can be discussed and greater understanding of scientific possibilities obtained, there is a significant danger of oversimplification in the debates.

In order to meet these and other challenges, Uppsala University and Newcastle University recently signed a document formalizing collaboration between the Centre for Research Ethics & Bioethics (CRB) in Uppsala and the Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences Research Centre (PEALS) in Newcastle.

“Our research profiles complement each other,” says Mats G. Hansson, Professor and Director of CRB. “PEALS has a strong competence in the sociology of ethics and empirical ethics and CRB offers ethical theory and a more philosophical approach.

An international collaboration such as this not only pools different kinds of expertise together, but also takes advantage of different cultural perspectives.

“This is a very exciting development,” says Dr Janice McLaughlin, Executive Director of PEALS. “Our work together is already in place and producing valuable output. Formalising those links will help to ensure that work continues to grow and both centres benefit from the collective potential.”

For more information, contact:

Dr. Janice Mc Laughlin, Executive Director
Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences Research Centre (PEALS), Newcastle University, United Kingdom.
E-mail: janice.mclaughlin@newcastle.ac.uk, Phone: +44 191 244 0778 or +44 191 222 7511


Mats G. Hansson, Professor of Biomedical Ethics, Director
Centre for Research Ethics & Bioethics (CRB), Uppsala University, Sweden
E-mail: mats.hansson@crb.uu.se, Phone: +46 18 471 61 97 or +46 763 41 20 50