Fern Wickson

In this commentary for Research Europe, Fern Wickson describes her experience and learning on the recently completed integrated research project working with ecotoxicologists to explore ethical issues related to their work. Arguing that the project successfully enabled collaborative ethical reflection between social and natural sciences, she describes how this process also revealed how research choices are often highly constrained by social and political factors outside of the scientists’ control. The conclusion is then that work needs to extend to a range of other actors and institutional spaces outside of scientific laboratories if responsible innovation is to be achieved.

Wickson, F. (2014) “Watching the regulatory tail wag the scientific dog” Research Europe 390, p. 7.

The commentary can be viewed online here