Ethical Governance of Biological and Biomedical Research: Chinese - European Co-operation

The BIONET project has now drawn to a close. Over three years (2006-2009), BIONET examined challenges of ethical governance related to Sino-European collaboration in advanced life sciences research. The results of this work are documented on this website.

BIONET's final report  outlines four spheres or layers of governance related to the ethical governance of Sino-European life science research collaborations: ethical deliberation, ethical regulation, ethical oversight and ethical interaction.

The BIONET Expert Group has prepared a set of recommendations for best practice in the ethical governance of Sino-European biological and biomedical research collaborations.

A BIONET textbook has been produced bringing together many of the presentations and insights from the three years of the BIONET project, including the work of the BIONET exchange students. The textbook also contains a set of the relevant laws, regulations and guidelines governing research in this area.

Each of these reports have drawn on discussions and insights from BIONET events held in Beijing, Shanghai, Changsha, Xi'an, Shenzhen and London focusing on issues of ethical governance in advanced biological and biomedical research, especially as regards Chinese-European bioscience collaboration. These events (attended by around 300 scientists, clinicians, lawyers, ethicists, social scientists, policymakers and others from China and Europe) covered the topics of Assisted Reproductive Technologies, Stem Cell Research, Clinical Trials and Biobanking.

Workshop and conference reports and other related publications from each of BIONET's six events are available here.

Finally, the latest and previous issues of BIONET Update are also available for download.

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