QUT researchers are invited to the inaugural Faculty Research Insights seminar, with Associate Professor Fiona McDonald addressing a crucial dimension of research impact.
Using Ethics to Inform Interventions, Policy Impact and Public Dissemination in an International Research Consortia
When we think about ethics in the context of research, we often think only of research ethics, but there are other ways ethics can be important. In this presentation, I discuss my involvement as an ethicist in a funded research project undertaken by an international research consortium (FACE-UP). This project was designed with ethics as one of seven research work packages (both science and social science research into protections for children highly exposed to air pollution in low- and middle-income countries). Reviewers saw ethics as one of the most important aspects of the project as asking whether something should be done and assessing how and why it should be done would add as much value as finding out whether interventions worked and whether children, families and policymakers were aware of risks and would adopt interventions.
The inclusion of ethics as a component of the research exposed researchers in the consortia to ethical issues and provoked debate during the research about the ethical implications of research results. It consequently impacted on the way in which consortia researchers decided to communicate findings to participants and stakeholders and, in the broader dissemination stage, with the public.
Event details
Date: Tuesday 1 October 2024
Time: 11.30am to 12.30pm followed by light refreshments
Location: QUT Gardens Point campus, A Block, Room A101
Registration: Required (before 26 September) for catering purposes. Please RSVP online.
About the presenter
Fiona McDonald is an Associate Professor in the QUT Law School and is a member of the Australian Centre for Health Law Research and the Centre for Justice. She is a project partner and CI on FACE-UP: Factors Affecting Childhood Exposures to Urban Particulates. This project is funded by the UKRI and the Medical Research Council (UK) (£1,934,898). It is a multi-disciplinary, international research consortia undertaking scientific and social science research and co-designed dissemination in Kathmandu, Nepal and Bandung, Indonesia. It is led by researchers from Durham University, supported by the Institute of Occupational Medicine, with local partner researchers from the National Health Research Council (Nepal), Universitas Indonesia, and the Institute of Technology Bandung. There are also a number of project partners, including the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and others.
