Stakeholders

Mónica Cano Abadía

POSITION: Senior Scientist - Gender, Equality and Diversity Specialist

INFO: Dr. Mónica Cano Abadía is a moral and political philosopher. In 2014, she obtained with honors her PhD in Philosophical Studies from the University of Zaragoza. In addition to her MA in Philosophical Studies (2010), she holds a second MA in Secondary Education Teaching (2017), with a specialization in the pedagogy of ethics and political philosophy. She has been a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies – South East Europe (University of Rijeka), and at the Section of Political Philosophy (University of Graz). Her current research foci include gender and ethics of AI in biomedicine.

Jonas Åkerman

POSITION: Research Integrity and Ethics Coordinator at Stockholm University (Office of Research, Engagement and Innovation Services).

INFO: Docent (reader/associate professor) in philosophy. Active member of EARMA’s Ethics and Research Integrity Officers Network (ERION) and member and secretary of the expert group on ethics within the Association of Swedish Higher Education Institutions.

Sandra Bendiscioli

POSITION: Senior Science Policy Officer at the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO)

INFO: Sandra Bendiscioli holds a masters’ degree in Foreign Languages, Literature and Linguistics from the University of Pavia in Italy. In 2001 she joined EMBO in the Science and Society Programme, where she was responsible for the organization of events to promote public understanding of science and foster discussions on the ethical aspects of scientific research. She joined the EMBO Science Policy Programme in 2011.  She analyses policy implications in research integrity, research assessment and gender issues in science. One of the focusses of her work is research integrity and in particular the systemic factors and policies that influence how researchers carry out their work. She was primarily responsible for the development of a series of workshops on research integrity for the EMBO community, and delivers these regularly at scientific institutes in different countries.  She regularly gives presentations on issues in responsible conduct of research for researchers. She is in charge of the distribution of an on-line research integrity training course to the EMBO scientific community. She is a co-author of a 2020 EMBO analytical report on options entitled "Governance of research integrity in Europe".  Sandra Bendiscioli is also involved in analysing peer review processes for the allocation of research funding, and is a co-author of the freshly launched RoRI (Research on Research Institute) "The experimental research funder’s handbook”.

Katarzyna Biernacka

POSITION: Researcher and PhD student at the Department of Computer Science in Computer Science Education at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) in Germany, where she examines the challenges of publishing research data relating to research integrity and data protection.

INFO: After she received her diploma in Computer Science, she started working as a project assistant and media designer in various national funded projects in Germany. Until February 2019, she worked at the Computer and Media Service of the HU - initially responsible for the digital asset management system of the university and since July 2017 as project coordinator in the project “FDMentor". Together with her colleagues, Katarzyna was in charge of developing the Train-the-Trainer programme for Research Data Management (RDM). Since then, she has trained many people in this field and has also continued qualifying as an Open Science and Research Integrity trainer herself. Since the beginning of 2019, she has been the co-spokesperson for the Sub-WG Trainings/Further Education of the DINI/nestor-WG Research Data, and in February 2020, she was appointed co-chair of the RDA ETHRD IG. Thus, she supports both national and international exchange on RDM.

Stephanos Cherouvis

POSITION: Senior Project Manager at Ecsite

INFO: Stephanos Cherouvis is a Senior Project Manager at Ecsite. He has a PhD in Philosophy of Science (UCD). Over the past 10 years, he has been working on numerus EU-funded projects in education, RRI, science communication, citizen science and open access. He has a long interest and experience in smart practices, in supporting teachers, researchers, policy makers and various community stakeholdersto act as change agents and in public engagement in research and education across Europe, mostly in the context of large-scale European initiatives.

Ilaria Colussi

POSITION: Legal expert at BBMRI-ERIC

INFO: Italian qualified lawyer (“avvocato”) and holds a Ph. D. in Public Law/Biolaw from the University of Trento, Italy. She has worked both as a counselor in law firms in Udine and Milan, Italy, in the areas of administrative law and international trade law, and as an academic researcher in the areas of law and new technologies (genetics and synthetic biology). She has been a Marie Curie Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Liège, Belgium, in the European Studies Unit, where she focused on strategic trade, dual-use items, export control issues and European restrictive measures. She has served as a legal trainee at the European Ombudsman in Brussels (Belgium), and through the years she has been a visiting researcher and professor at St. Hugh’s College-University of Oxford (UK), Interuniversity Chair of Law and the Human Genome -Bilbao (Spain), European Studies Unit-University of Concepciòn (Chile) and Constitutional Law Chair-University of Paranà (Argentina). With the desire to discover new things and environments, she has also worked as a Legal Specialist in a private company, focusing on compliance with the European Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). As a legal expert on privacy issues, in April 2021, she has enthusiastically joined BBMRI-ERIC, with the role of dealing with the implementation of a Code of Conduct for Health Research and providing support to the ELSI team on legal matters. In her spare time, she loves reading poetry, playing violin, performing theatrical comedies, and writing musical/literary shows on different topics.

Iryna Degtyarova

POSITION: Advisory Board Member in Eurodoc, the European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers, and Coordinator of the Working Group Research Integrity in Eurodoc.

INFO: Iryna Degtyarova has a PhD in Political Sciences and Administration (from Warsaw School of Economics) and PhD in Ukrainian linguistics (from the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine). Iryna Degtyarova specializes in higher education governance and public policy, research integrity and career development. Currently she is a Senior Researcher at the Polish Rectors Foundation.

Luke Drury

POSITION: Emeritus Professor of Astrophysics in the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies and a Vice-President of ALLEA.

INFO: Emeritus Professor of Astrophysics in the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies and a Vice-President of ALLEA, the European federation of academies of sciences and humanities, where he chairs the open science task force. He graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 1975 with primary degrees in pure mathematics and experimental physics before completing a PhD in the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge in 1979. After working in the Max Planck Institut für Kernphysik in Heidelberg, Germany, he returned to Dublin in 1986 as a senior professor in the School of Cosmic Physics of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.

Björn Gerlach

POSITION: Co-founder of PAASP GmbH

INFO: Co-founder of the PAASP GmbH, the first full-service consulting and auditing company that specializes in providing assessment of operational risks related to quality of research data. He studied biology at the University of Giessen, Germany, and obtained his PhD at the Imperial College London, UK, focusing on immune cell signaling. Subsequently, Björn moved back to Germany to join Abbott (later AbbVie) as a Postdoctoral Fellow. He worked on biomarkers in the field of neurodegenerative diseases and supported the development of a neuroprotective drug. Since 2015, Björn supports the endeavors of PAASP to enhance research quality and is board member of the Guarantors of EQIPD society.

Andrea Giacomelli

POSITION: Freelance researcher and founder of the pibinko.org Network, with 27 years of experience, based in Southern Tuscany and operating internationally.

INFO: Freelance researcher with 27 years of experience, based in Southern Tuscany and operating internationally. With an MS in Environmental Engineering and a PhD in Hydrology, both from Politecnico di Milano, Italy, he has an extensive experience in institutional research programmes, especially within European Union Funded activities. In these projects, as well as in corporate consulting, he has worked as a Geographic Information Systems expert. He also has experience in policy support activities from local to global scales, including being the facilitator of one of the working groups for the data specifications of the INSPIRE Directive, and being part of a pool of experts involved in the definition of priorities for research in initiatives such as the Digital Earth, and other high-level stakeholder groups. Since 2006 he started developing an independent line of activity, creating a bottom-up network of citizens (the pibinko.org network) involved in projects for the promotion and protection of lesser known assets in the fields of culture, environment, and open innovation. This has led to results in the relations between research and society which, albeit on a small scale, have been disruptive for the actors involved. For example, through the BuioMetria Partecipativa projects, an initiative for awareness raising and citizen science for night sky quality protection, there have been two national research institutions starting activities on the same topic, with the citizen group acting as a scientific advisor to the research bodies, or to an Erasmus student visiting a rural area in Southern Tuscany, with a direct connection of a foreign university to a local community in Italy (without an Italian research institution involved). Since 2019 he is a member of the “Empowerment, Inclusiveness, and Equality” working group of the European Citizen Science Association. With his combination of activities on one side with a “researcher hat”, and on the other side as a “citizen interacting with researchers”, he has gained a significant track record of cases where research ethics issues are in play. His current flagship project in the area of stakeholder engagement and facilitation is a rock-blues collective, the Jug Band Colline Metallifere, with which he provides events in a format combining scientific outreach and genuine musical entertainment.

Dara Hallinan

POSITION: Legal Academic working at FIZ Karlsruhe.

INFO: Dara Hallinan is a legal academic working at FIZ Karlsruhe. His specific focus is on the interaction between law, new technologies – particularly ICT and biotech – and society. He wrote his PhD at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel on the better regulation of genetic privacy in biobanks and genomic research through data protection law. He is programme director for the annual Computers, Privacy and Data Protection conference, editor of the bi-weekly Data Protection Insider, and author of the Book 'Protecting Genetic Privacy in Biobanking through Data Protection Law' from Oxford University Press.

Zoë Hammatt

POSITION: Ms. Hammatt, a licensed attorney with a Master's in Law and Ethics in medicine, provides writing services and research integrity consultation as President of Z Consulting, LLC.  She also serves as Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology in the School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii.

INFO: Ms. Hammatt previously served as Director of the Division of Education and Integrity at the U.S. Office of Research Integrity, Legal and Regulatory Specialist for an NIH-funded translational research network, and Director of the Research Integrity Program and Research Integrity Officer at the University of Hawaii. Ms. Hammatt has handled numerous cases of alleged misconduct and questionable research practice, served on Institutional Review Boards and Ethics Committees, and contributed to policy development and teaching in medical ethics and the responsible conduct of research in a global context. She is a founding member of the Asia Pacific Research Integrity Network, the Latin American Research Integrity network, and the African Research Integrity Network, and is a member of the World Conferences on Research Integrity Governing Board. 

Maura Hiney

POSITION: Head of International Cooperation, Evaluation and Targeted Programmes at the Health Research Board (HRB) of Ireland.

INFO: Head of International Cooperation, Evaluation and Targeted (INCET) Programmes at the HRB. INCET works with policy/decision-makers to support targeted research programmes addressing policy and healthcare delivery evidence needs. INCETalsohosts the Horizon Europe National Delegate and National Contact Pointsfor Health, and the National Focal Point for the EU4Health Health Programme. From 1994-1900 Maura worked as a senior researcher in Molecular Diagnostics and Epizootology. From 2000-2007 sheheaded Research Support Services at NUI Galway, where she established an ethics committee and policies and guidelines on good research practice. She has been influential in raising awareness of research integrity (RI) issues in Ireland, establishing a National RI Forum and developing a national RI policy. She chaired the Science Europe Working Group on RI,is Vice-Chair of the European Network of RI Offices and Chair of the ALLEA Permanent Working Group on Science and Ethics, with whom she coordinated a revision of the European Code of Conduct on RI in 2017 and is currently working on the next iteration. She sits on the Policy Advisory Boards of the EU-funded ENTiRE, VIRT2UE, Paths2Integrity and TechEthos projects, which conduct research on RI climate and training, and is a partner in the SOPs4RI project that is developing a suite of SOPs for funders and institutions managing good research practices and plans.

François Hirsch

POSITION: Member of the INSERM Ethics Committee, in charge of one of its working groups "Health Research in the South"; Secretary of the Ile-de-France 7 Committee for the Protection of Persons (CPP, national registered IRB) and a member of the Board of Directors of the National Conference of CPPs.

INFO: François Hirsch graduated in immunology from the Pasteur Institute and in Science & Medical Ethics from Paris-Sud University. He spent 30 years at the National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM) holding various positions in scientific research and research administration, including Secretary General of the ethics committee and deputy director of the Health Technologies Institute. For three years, he was a national expert seconded to the Governance and Ethics Unit of the European Commission (EC), where he contributed to the organization of the ethical evaluation of the research projects submitted for funding. François Hirsch is currently a member of the INSERM Ethics Committee, in charge of one of its working groups "Health Research in the South"; Secretary of the Ile-de-France 7 Committee for the Protection of Persons (CPP, national registered IRB) and a member of the Board of Directors of the National Conference of CPPs. At the international level, in addition to his responsibilities as Secretary General of the International Association for Responsible Research In Genome Editing (ARRIGE) of which he is one of the founders, he is an evaluator for various EC agencies, including the EDCTP platform (a tool for financing biomedical research in sub-Saharan Africa), a member of the European network of research ethics committees (EURECNet) and an ethics expert for the European network of veterinary medicine to combat zoonoses and antibiotic resistance. He also participated in the WHO reflection group on the ethical approach to vector-borne diseases in Southern countries.

Rien Janssens

POSITION: Assistant Professor of Medical Ethics at the Amsterdam University Medical Center

INFO: Rien Janssens (1969) studied theology at the Radboud University Nijmegen the Netherlands, where he also completed his PhD research in 2001. He is assistant professor of medical ethics at the Amsterdam University Medical Center. Since 2005, He has been functioning as ethicist-member in Dutch MREC’s. Since 2014 he has been member of the board of the Dutch Association of MREC’s (NVMETC). As such he is the Dutch ordinary member of EUREC. Research interests include research ethics, research integrity and palliative care.

Tim Kersjes

POSITION: Research Integrity Manager in the Springer Nature Research Integrity Group (SNRIG).

INFO: Research Integrity Manager in the Springer Nature Research Integrity Group (SNRIG). He leads a team of six Research Integrity Advisers who supports in-house editors and Editors-in-Chief in handling and resolving all types of research integrity and publication ethics issues. The cases vary from plagiarism and authorship disputes to peer review review manipulation, medical-ethical concerns, data fabrication and image manipulation in submitted manuscripts and published articles. He has advised on nearly 2000 cases and has written hundreds of retraction notices. The SNRIG also raise awareness of best practice and ethical conduct in research, investigate unethical practices and audit Springer Nature’s own editorial practices and policies. Tim has a background in philosophy (University of Groningen, Netherlands).

Elena Kkolou

POSITION: Senior Pharmacy Officer at the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics (CING)

INFO: Elena Kkolou has a BSc in Pharmacy and an MSc in Health Management. She is a member of the Review Bioethics Committee for Clinical Trials in Humans, a sub-committee of the Cyprus National Bioethics Committee, and the Master Trainer in the Clinical Trials Information System. She is a member of the European Network of Research Ethics Committees (EURECNet). She is the Senior Pharmacy Officer at the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics (CING), a tertiary neurology centre specializing in research, diagnosis, and treatment of chronic neurological and genetic conditions since 1996. She is responsible for the overall management andoperation of the hospital pharmacy at CING and is actively involved in the conduct of clinical trials both as an investigator, peer reviewer, and bioethical evaluator. She has a long-standingexperience in scientific researchmainly in the areas of medication safety, efficacy and compliance, and is responsible for the education of healthcare personnel and pharmacy students. She serves as a member of the CING Accreditation Committee, AuditCommittee, Infection Prevention and Control Committee, and is the secretary of the CING Drugs and Therapeutics Committee. She is a Management Committee substitute member for Cyprus at COST Actions CA15105 (European Medicines Shortages Research Network) and CA19132 (European Network to Advance Best Practices & Technology on Medication Adherence-ENABLE). She is the Treasurer of the Cyprus Chapter of the International League against Epilepsy (ILAE) and a member of the ERN EpiCare Network (European Reference Network for Rare and Complex Epilepsies).

Katharina Koller

POSITION: Junior Researcher at Zentrum für Soziale Innovation in the department of “Work and Equal Opportunities”.

INFO: Katharina Koller is a junior researcher at Zentrum für Soziale Innovation in the department of “Work and Equal Opportunities”. Her research interests include processes of inclusion and exclusion as well as scale development and quantitative methods. She holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Vienna and an MSc in Psychology from the University of Amsterdam, where she was an active member of the Student Initiative for Open Science. Since then, she has been an advocate for Open Science, focusing on the perspective and experience of students and young researchers.

Liise Lehtsalu

POSITION: Research Support Officer at Eurac Research (Bolzano, Italy).

INFO: Dr. Liise Lehtsalu is a research support officer in Eurac Research, where she coordinates institutional open science and research data management strategy and policy development and supports researchers with open science, research ethics, and research integrity in pre- and post-award.

Ana Marušić

POSITION: Professor of Anatomy and Chair of the Department of Research in Biomedicine and Health at the University of Split School of Medicine, Split, Croatia. Honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh in the UK and Co-Editor in Chief of the Journal of Global Health. Member of the Steering Group of the EQUATOR Network and is the Co-Chair of the Cochrane Scientific Committee.

INFO: Prof. Marušić was the president of several editorial organizations: European Association of Science Editors (EASE), Council of Science Editors (CSE), and World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), and is a former member of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). She currently serves on the Council of the Publication Ethics (COPE). Prof. Marušić is scientific and ethics expert for the research programmes of the European Commission, and has served as independent observer of Horizon 2020 grant calls. She was an expert participant in the Mutual Learning Exercise on Research Integrity, organized by the Horizon Policy Support Facility of the European Commission. She also coordinated a number of research studies into the EU grant evaluation system. Prof. Marušić has more than 300 peer-reviewed publications and was heavily involved with creating the policy of mandatory registration of clinical trials in public registries which helped change the legal regulation of clinical trials worldwide.

Eva Méndez

POSITION: Deputy Vice President for Scientific Policy-Open Science at UC3M

INFO: Eva Méndez holds a PhD in Library and Information Sciences (LIS) and is an expert in metadata. She defines herself in her Twitter profile as an ‘open knowledge militant’ (@evamen). She has been a lecturer at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), LIS department since 1997.She has been an active member of several international research teams, advisory boards and communities including DCMI, OpenAire, Metadata2020, RDA, etc. In 2005-06 she was awarded a Fulbright Research Scholarship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA). She has taken part in and led several research projects and acted as advisor to many more in the fields related to standardization, metadata, semantic web, open data, digital repositories and libraries, in addition to information policies for development in several countries. In 2015 she won the Young Researcher of Excellence award of her University. In November 2017 she was named “Open Data Champion” by SPARC Europe. She was the chair of the European Open Science Policy Platform (2018-2020) and Research Data Alliance ambassador for Interdisciplinary research. She is currently Deputy Vice President for Scientific Policy-Open Science at UC3M and coordinator of the WP on Open Science in YUFERING project.

Jean Gaëtan Nyurahayo

POSITION: Biology and Religion Teacher at Saint Ignatius High School in Kigali-Rwanda

INFO: Jean Gaëtan Nyurahayo is a fresh graduand of Arrupe Jesuit University (AJU) [located in Harare, Zimbabwe] from which he was awarded the Master of Arts Degree in Philosophy with Distinction. He also holds an advanced diploma in Theology/ Christian Religious Education (CRE) from Joy of God Bible Institute and a Bachelor’s Degree in Biotechnology from the University of Rwanda (UR). He is Fluent in languages such as Kinyarwanda, English, and French and he can read a few others. His areas of interest include but are not limited to Biotechnology, Ethics, Bioethics, Environmental Ethics, Nicomachean Ethics, Nietzsche and Existentialism, African Philosophy, Epistemology, Economic Philosophy, Human Rights, Philosophy of law, Biostatistics, and Political Philosophy. For three years, he has been an active member of the Arrupe Jesuit University’s Child and Vulnerable Adult Protection Committee and for one year and a half, a Mentor at the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME). He has researched, published, and attended symposia and seminars on health, education, nation and nationalism, climate change and adaptation, Nietzsche and his views on the idea of the death of God, among others. He was a member of the Editorial Board of Chiedza Journal of Arrupe Jesuit University.

Đorđe Petrović

POSITION: Science journalist at the Center for the Promotion of Science (Belgrade, Serbia)

INFO: Đorđe is a science journalist and science communicator at the Center for the Promotion of Science, based in Belgrade (Serbia). He holds BA in journalism and political science, BA in philosophy and he is an MA candidate in cultural studies. Đorđe has been involved in the Center’s educational programs and science communication projects like the Peer Review Seminar, the Application of Thought Experiments in Teaching, art+science, M3 manifestation (May the month of math), the Science Communication Course for Young Researchers, and an exhibition of scientific illustrations Beyond objectivity. He has also been involved in European projects such as TechEthos and ODYSSEY – Oxford Debates for Youths in Science Education.

Lisa M. Rasmussen

POSITION: Professor of Research Ethics and Medical Ethics in the Department of Philosophy of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

INFO: Lisa M. Rasmussen (she/her) earned her PhD in Philosophy with a focus in bioethics from Rice University in 2003. She is a Professor in the Department of Philosophy at UNC Charlotte, and currently serves as a Faculty Fellow in the Graduate School with a focus on fostering a campus-wide culture of research integrity. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Accountability in Research. One of Dr. Rasmussen’s main research areas is research ethics, particularly research misconduct and federal regulatory approaches to ethical issues in research. She is presently working on a book manuscript on unregulated human subject research, motivated by her recent work in citizen science and DIY Bio.She also writes and teaches in the areas of healthcare ethics and ethics consultation. Dr. Rasmussen has been PI or Co-PI on over $1.1 million in NSF grant funding, and serves as Co-Editorof the book series Philosophy and Medicine (Springer) comprising nearly 140 volumes.

Borana Taraj

POSITION: Project Manager at the European Association of Research Managers and Administrators (EARMA).

INFO: Borana Taraj is working as a Project Manager for EARMA on the topic of research ethics and integrity. She is in charge of the ‘Standard Operating Procedures for Research Integrity’ (SOPs4RI) project and the EARMA thematic group on Ethics and Research Integrity (ERION). She has been deeply involved in strengthening the ERION community as well as shaping the outcomes in the SOPs4RI project. She has been actively collaborating with key partners from academia, industry and other European associations and projects. Borana has been working in Brussels since 2013 for several policy initiatives and European-funded projects in research ethics and integrity (current position), energy and business environment.

Tiiu Tarkpea

POSITION: Data Librarian at the University of Tartu Library

INFO: Tiiu Tarkpea is responsible for open science activities in University of Tartu and in Estonia in the framework of DataCite Estonia Consortium. UT is a member of DataCite, UT library is an OpenAIRE NOAD, RDA node and a member of COAR, so she is active in all these organisations and activities with other research support team members. UT Library also works together with stakeholders like Ministry of Education and Research, Estonian Research Council, university authorities and researchers and students to shape open science policy in Estonia. UT is a partner in European University Network ENLIGHT and the library is the leader of open science and responsible research WP in the university. T. Tarkpea has created several e-courses on open science and research data management on PhD level in collaboration with faculties and Center for Ethics. She also provides consultation on data management plans. Her speciality is personal data protection in research. She has credentials of DPO (2018). As a member of IFLA SC-ARL she works to bring together activities and knowledge of open science and responsible research from other professional and this way support the research libraries and their role in researchers’ community.

Erzsébet Tóth-Czifra

POSITION: Open Science Officer of DARIAH-EU

INFO: Erzsébet has received her PhD in Cultural Linguistics and also has a background in scholarly communication.. She works as the Open Science Officer of DARIAH-EU, where she is responsible for fostering and implementing policies and practices related to the open dissemination of research results in the humanities. Her advocacy activities include providing workshops, webinars, and other training activities on a regular basis. She is also involved in European infrastructure-building projects such as OpenAire Advance, OPERAS-P, and TRIPLE.

Mathijs Vleugel

POSITION: Scientific Policy Officer at ALLEA

INFO: Mathijs Vleugel is a science policy expert at ALLEA - the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities. Mathijs obtained his PhD in cell biology from Utrecht University and did his postdoctoral research in biophysics at Delft University of Technology. After four years as a scientific editor at Springer Nature in London and Berlin, Mathijs joined ALLEA in 2021, where he guides a diverse range of projects including Open Science, Research Integrity, and Genome Editing.

Sally Louise Williams

POSITION: Clinical Research Manager at the Eye Clinic of the Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, Italy.

INFO: This is my 35th year as clinical research manager at the Eye Clinic of the Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, Italy. I have been involved in many clinical trials on age-related cataract, glaucoma, uveitis, dry eye syndrome, age-related macular degeneration, limbal stem cell deficiency, due to ocular burns. I contributed to studies sponsored by the National Eye Institute, NIH, Bethesda, USA and to trials sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry. I have a Master’s degree in Clinical Trials and since 2012 I have been Distance Learning Tutor on the MSc Course on Clinical Trials with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Over the years I have developed a keen interest in the ethics of clinical trials and in sharing my knowledge and experience. I like to use my experience to foster good research practices and to encourage reflection and dialogue on real cases of research misconduct, detrimental or poor research practices. In my courses I promote research integrity, focusing on two complementary approaches: the principle-based approach and the virtue-based approach. The “principle-based” approach focuses on principles and norms included in the main international ethical standards (e.g. Belmont Report, Declaration of Helsinki, Guideline for Good Clinical Practice). The “virtue-based” approach fosters reflection on what it means to be a good researcher in practice and the development of virtuous character traits.

Phramaha Somphong Khunakaro (Unyo)

POSITION: Assistant Professor and Vice-Director at International Buddhist Studies College, Mahachulalongkornrajaviyalaya University

INFO: Venerable Asst. Prof. Dr. Phramaha Somphong Khunakaro (Unyo) was born on May 27, 1973, in the Northeastern part of Thailand and received ordination in Buddhism at the age of thirteen. After ordination, he spent 13 years learning the Pali language until he graduated from the 9th class of the Thai traditional Pali study of Thai Sangha together with B.Ed. from Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University. As he was much interested in philosophy, he went to India for studying M.A. in Philosophy at Madras Christian College and Ph.D. in Philosophy at University of Madras in Chennai. Apart from Buddhist philosophy as his way of life, he was highly interested in Western philosophy, especially German philosophers. Thus, during his Ph.D., he spent a year at the Goethe institute to learn the German language and wrote his thesis on the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl. He also participates in French classes at the Alliance Française in Bangkok, Thailand. As an academic, he received invitations to present academic papers at international conferences in various countries in Asia and Europe. He was recently appointed Vice-Director at International Buddhist Studies College, Mahachulalongkornrajaviyalaya University, where he teaches B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. students in Western philosophy, peace studies and Buddhism, and supervises M.A. and Ph.D. students in their dissertations, as part of an international programme.

Ms. Namita Ghimire

POSITION: Leading person in the Ethical Review Monitoring and Evaluation Sections of the Nepal Health Research Council (NHRC)

INFO: She is the leading person in the Ethical Review Monitoring and Evaluation Sections of the Nepal Health Research Council (NHRC). She has been working in NHRC for more than 15 years (From January 25, 2009, till date) in the area of ethics in health research. She had quite a long experience in research ethics with profound knowledge and training. She completed her MA in Sociology from Patan Multiple Campus in 2006 and doing PhD. She is one of the surveyors in the Strategic Initiative for Developing Capacity in Ethical Review/Forum for Ethical Review Committees in the Asian and Western Pacific Region (SIDCER/FERCAP) from Nepal and she participated as an oral and Poster presenter in the Annual International Conference and General Assembly in each SIDCER/FERCAP. She has been involved in ethics-related research Proposals on Surveying the Asian and African Research Ethics Committee Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic conducted by NHRC in collaboration with SIDCER/FERCAP, Perceptions on Ethics of Public Health Interventions during the Covid-19 Outbreak, conducted by NHRC and Developing national and global agendas for the ethics of post-trial arrangements in low and middle-income countries during pandemics/epidemics (Pandemic Ethics) sponsored by the Research Council of Norway which will be implemented by NHRC and Institute of Medicine from Nepal. She has a significant number of publications in peer-reviewed Journals. Her areas of expertise are ethics in health research and social science research.