Fogarty awards four 2014 bioethics grants

June 4, 2014

Since responsible treatment of human subjects is fundamental to all clinical research, Fogarty recently awarded four awards totaling $4.6 million to establish new bioethics initiatives in five low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). Funding from Fogarty's International Research Ethics Education and Curriculum Development Award will support educational opportunities for clinical researchers conducting studies involving human subjects. The new five-year grants will enable training at sites in Grenada, Guatemala, Mexico, Mozambique and Uganda.

"We should strive to provide human research subjects in the developing world with bioethical standards and protections," said Fogarty Director Dr. Roger I. Glass. "These new awards will help work toward that goal, increasing the ranks of scientists and health professionals possessing the necessary knowledge of ethical considerations that are integral to their work."

Union Graduate College will use its award to collaborate with St. George's University in Grenada and the Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro in Mexico to offer distance learning research ethics curricula in English and Spanish to students in 21 countries bordering the Caribbean. A grant to Makerere University will allow seven Fogarty-trained Ugandan bioethicists to act as core faculty and develop new curricula, including short certificate courses. The University of Pennsylvania will develop research ethics training and enhance institutional review board capacities in Guatemala. Finally, Vanderbilt University's funding will allow trainees at University of Eduardo Mondlane in Mozambique to develop research ethics curriculum materials in Portuguese for training students, faculty and ethics committee members.

The awards are partly supported by NIH funding partner, the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI).

2014 International Research Ethics Education and Curriculum Development Awards

• Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda
  International Health Research Ethics Training Program
  Principal Investigator: Dr. Nelson Sewankambo

• Union Graduate College, Schenectady, New York
  Caribbean Research Ethics Education Initiative (CREEI)
  Principal Investigator: Dr. Sean Philpott, Dr. Cheryl Cox-Macpherson and Dr. Robert Hall

• University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  Building Local Capacities in Ethics Training and IRB Review in Guatemala
  Principal Investigator: Dr. Jon Merz

• Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
  VU- Mozambique Collaborative Research Ethics Education Program
  Principal Investigator: Dr. Troy Moon and Dr. Elizabeth Heitman

More Information

• Learn more about Fogarty's International Research Ethics Education and Curriculum Development Award.
• Access a collection of bioethics news and resources for investigators, committees, students, teachers and more.

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