Ethics of Water Related Research

On 6 October, I gave an online lecture on A 3-dimensional approach to Do-It-Yourself Ethics of Water-related Research during the International Water-Climate Summer School in Mahikeng, North West Province of South Africa. The School is organised by the North-West University in partnership with WaterNet and BALEWARE.  In my lecture, I gave an introduction to research ethics, responsible research and innovation and to the ethical impact assessment prestandard: CEN CWA 17145-2:2017 (E). I discussed guidelines and tools for performing ethical impact assessment developed and tested in RiskGONE and introduced a case study exploring ethical impacts of a fictitious project applying nanomaterials in wastewater remediation in Africa. Questions from the audience were mostly related to ethical dilemmas in social science research.