Adoption of rapid ethical appraisal as a practical method of assessing ethical issues relating to biomedical research projects in Ethiopia. (360G-Wellcome-089769_Z_09_Z)

The proposed research will test whether Rapid Ethical Assessment can be introduced as a mainstream tool to enhance biomedical research ethics appraisal in Ethiopia. Review of literature will shape a quantitative study to assess the most important issues to have affected research ethics review todate. A qualitative study will then explore deeper sociological, anthropological and ethical dimensions to the issues surrounding ethical appraisal. From the information gathered, tools based on the Rapid Ethical Assessment used in the Gambia will be developed and presented at a one-day stakeholder workshop. After feedback from participants, the tools will be piloted in at least three community-based epidemiologic research projects in Ethiopia. Basedon evaluations made, the tools will be further refined, and presented to a wider audience through a second 3-5 day workshop. A database made up of Rapid Ethical Assessments preceding a range of studies will be compiled, and will beavailable to interested researchers, on application.