Work Package 5:

Risk-benefit analysis of ethics assessment activities

• Deliverable 5.1: A report on the cost-effectiveness and risk benefit of ethics assessment

  Task Leader: DBT

  • A report on the cost-effectiveness and risk benefit of ethics assessment

    This report explores how best to conceptualise and implement cost-effectiveness and risk-benefit evaluation of ethics assessment and ethics guidance in relation to European research and innovation (R&I). The report gives an overview over existing data about the effectiveness of ethics assessment and other organizational mechanisms for supporting a culture of ethics in R&I organizations. The report finally assesses current best practice in evaluating the cost-effectiveness of ethics assessment. The report builds on interviews, literature review, and case studies in addition to expert input reported in SATORI D5.3.

• Deliverable 5.2: A methodology for assessing the cost-effectiveness and risk benefit of ethics assessment

  Task Leader: DBT

  • A methodology for assessing the cost-effectiveness and risk benefit of ethics assessment

    This report proposes a methodology outlining when and where different approaches to cost-effectiveness assessment (CEA) and risk-benefit analysis (RBA) may meaningfully be applied to ethics assessment (EA) of research and innovation (R&I). The aim of this methodology is two-fold. On the one hand the purpose is to guide decision-makers through the process of weighing costs and risks against effectiveness and benefits in relation to implementation of EA in organizations that are in one way or the other involved in R&I. On the other hand the purpose is also to prevent EA from being implemented in a manner where misplaced concerns about running costs and short-term risks undermine the efforts of the Ethical Assessment Unit (EAU) to guide research performing and funding organizations away from ethics breaches, staekeholder backlash, and negative impacts on society towards positive impacts and sustained levels of trust and legitimacy.

• Deliverable 5.3: A report of the stakeholder workshop

  Task Leader: DBT

  • A report of the stakeholder workshop

    This report conveys recommendations from a co-design expert workshop about how the SATORI project may design a methodology for examining the cost-effectiveness of ethics assessment and for considering the risks and benefits involved in such assessment. The experts warned against the idea that the cost-effectiveness of ethics assessment can be generalised, stressing that only concrete cases with well-established operational goals can meaningfully be subjected to such examination. Instead, experts recommended producing tools to assist the implementation of the SATORI framework for ethics assessment in concrete organizational settings.