Workshop in Ethics and Responsibility in Research and Innovation
In a half-day workshop members of the 2017, 2016 and 2015 cohorts of the Centre for Doctoral Training in High Performance Embedded and Distributed Systems (HiPEDS) discussed questions and issues around societal and ethical implications of research in engineering disciplines. The group of PhD students reflected on their own research areas and explored potential risks that may occur as a consequence of their research outputs. They also discussed what responsibilities each individual researcher might need to consider. The goal of the workshop was to develop a HiPEDS Code of Conduct that summarises these thoughts, and to develop a structure and format for future CDT workshops on this topic, addressing these issues in a way that is relevant to HiPEDS students.
The HiPEDS Code of Conduct is a list of principles and ideals that the students found important to highlight, and would be useful to take into account in daily research practice:
- Being responsible, e.g. with data privacy, security, confidentiality
- Conducting transparent research
- Engaging with the public, supporting education and outreach
- Consider risks, foresee risks, be clear about risks
- Consider environmental impact, aim for sustainable solutions
- Benefit Society; weigh benefits and risks
- Be humble, in your self-assessment of your work and its impact
- Intellectual honesty
- Be clear and careful about assumptions and limitations
