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Research from the world leading Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility (CCSR) influences policy decisions and practice at national and international levels.
The specific examples cited in this case study demonstrate the role CCSR research played in shaping electronic voting and electronic government in the UK, leading to the suspension of electronic voting in 2008 and an annual cost saving to the UK Government of £4m, and impacts on European ICT research policy including direct contributions to an EGE Opinion, namely the "The Opinion on Ethics and ICT". EGE Opinions are considered to be "soft law" as they are authoritative in their area of expertise. The `Opinion on Ethics and ICT' guided ICT research policy with regards to ethics and ICT during the FP7 funding programme, and it has been adopted as a set of underpinning principles for the Horizon 2020 programme. Other research findings have similarly informed the Horizon 2020 cross cutting theme of `Responsible Research and Innovation'.
Widdows has shaped policy-making in areas of genetic ethics and especially biobanking. She has had impact:
In these arenas her work on consent, trust and genetic governance has shaped understandings of genetic ethics, which has created new policy:
More than a decade's research at the University of Leeds has focused on a cohesive set of issues bearing directly and indirectly on ethics in the workplace: reasons for action, moral psychology, good judgement, character and integrity. The impact of this work covers: consultancy on organisational ethics; development and delivery of CPD for engineers; use of web-based and online materials to engage professionals in ethical reasoning; applied research and engagement with practitioners on integrity at work; a submission to the Leveson enquiry; and an ethics template for the National Nuclear Laboratory. Its significance and reach in embedding ethics in professional life is demonstrated by the range of these activities and the size of the organisations involved.
In the face of perceived public concerns about technological innovations, leading national and international bodies increasingly recognize the need for dialogue between policy makers, scientific researchers and social actors in order to develop the technologies to address the grand challenges facing our societies in a way that meets social needs and gains public trust. The Directorate-General for Research and Innovation of the EU, the UK Government and many funding bodies are addressing this issue by insisting on Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in the development of emerging technologies, yet the mechanisms for implementing RRI remain largely unspecified. Researchers in SSHM (Rose, Singh, Marris and colleagues) have established a Foresight and Responsible Research and Innovation Laboratory (FRRIL) that has devised and implemented the first detailed frameworks for applying the principles of RRI in the regulation of synthetic biology, novel neurotechnologies and cognitive enhancement; providing important, replicable models for translating the principles of RRI into policy and practice in emerging biotechnologies.
Chappell's recent work developing an anti-systematic philosophical ethics, and in particular his work on the notions of personhood and second-personality, has had an impact on (1) provision of public and health services, (2) policy-making, and (3) cultural life. He has presented work on ethics and persons to public audiences in Northampton, Mexico City, Oxford, St Andrews, Leeds, Milan, and Sydney. Besides a general intellectual-cultural impact on these public audiences, he has had specific impacts on thinking and practice (1) in paediatrics at The Northampton General Hospital and (2) in religious and educational constituencies in Britain and Australia.
The University of Huddersfield's research on accounting ethics has made a major contribution to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) — one of the world's premier accounting bodies. Through membership of its Ethics Standards Committee and collaboration with ICAEW staff the Business School's Professor Christopher Cowton has brought a unique academic perspective to the Institute's promotion of professional ethics. Cowton's research, part-funded by the Institute, has shaped its ethics agenda for its 140,000 members in over 160 countries, along with its thought leadership on integrity and the public interest, its initiative to promote integrity in business, and the new ethics examination for aspiring Chartered Accountants.
Drawing on his longstanding research in theology and medical ethics, Robin Gill has been an active member of four of the most important national health-care ethics and bioethics committees in the UK (the British Medical Association's Ethics Committee, the Medical Research Council's Stem Cell Bank Steering Committee, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Ethics Committee). Through this work he has produced the content of some of the most widely-used ethical guidance and training by medical practitioners in the UK, contributed to a working group that has led to the Welsh Assembly establishing an opt-out organ donation system in Wales (the first part of the UK to do so), been an active member of the committee which determines what forms of stem cell research are authorized in the UK, and shaped major policy reports on bioethics. Given the scale of his contribution and the influence of the organizations with which he has worked, this has arguably made Gill one of the most important influences on professional medical ethics and bioethics in the UK from the field of theology and religious studies during this REF cycle.
DU research into nanotechnology and geoengineering has used deliberative forms of public engagement involving focus groups with lay publics to explore the complexity of societal concerns about emerging technologies. The results of this research have made a major contribution to the development of a framework of responsible innovation. This framework has been applied to RCUK-funded research, where it led to the withdrawal of the UK's first field trial of a prospective geoengineering technology. This framework has had direct impact on European policy debate and on the UK's Engineering and Physical Science Research Council, which has begun to embed responsible innovation in an operational context.