Our Mission

Trust in ethics

Public trust in science needs reliable and informed ethics experts and ethics review processes. irecs will make a significant contribution to improving the Horizon Europe ethics review process. We want to widen the pool of ethics reviewers with expertise in new technologies and educate on the risks of globalised research.

Global problems, global solutions

As globalisation increases, so does the risk of ethics dumping — or moving ethically dubious research to developing nations with less safeguards for research subjects. The ethical standards of science are not consistent across Europe and the rest of the world, leaving international research vulnerable to legal loopholes and untrustworthy practices across national borders. We are identifying and training researchers to protect science and new technologies from ethics dumping.

Improve conduct, not just capacity

The success of irecs is measured by how we can change the ethics process for the better. We are working with ethics reviewers, committees, research funders and researchers themselves to improve conduct. We want the transformative power of new technology to be melded with the protection and promotion of fundamental human rights and values