VUB Ethics Week from 11-15 December, 2023

‘No excellent research without excellent ethics and integrity’

The VUB’s Ethics Week is an opportunity for researchers from within and outside the VUB to reflect on how ethics contributes to excellent research. This year’s thematic kick-off session will focus on the role of AI in research.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools creates many new opportunities to facilitate and speed up research processes. However, there may also be downsides and risks associated with using this new technology in research. These include potential overreliance of researchers on outputs of AI-tools and the introduction/reinforcement of biases. The opening session will explore insights related to the advantages of using AI-tools in research while simultaneously addressing their limitations and risks.

--> To register and join the sessions online, please fill in this registration form. All sessions will take place in English and will take one hour of your time.

Programme

Dec 11 2023, 09:00 CET - The use of Generative AI in research: Opportunities, limitations and risks?
By Physicist Vincent Ginnis and Thijs Devriendt (Science Policy Officer, Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools creates many new opportunities to facilitate and speed up research processes. However, there may also be downsides and risks associated with using this new technology in research. These include potential overreliance of researchers on outputs of AI-tools and the introduction/reinforcement of biases. The opening session will explore insights related to the advantages of using AI-tools in research while simultaneously addressing their limitations and risks.

Dec 13 2023, 12:00 CET - Pathfinder to the Ethical Committee Social sciences & Humanities?
By Professor Karl Verstrynge (Department of Philosophy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
The Ethical Committee Human Sciences (ECHW) considers the ethical aspects of the method and procedure of research in the field of social sciences and humanities. During this session, Professor Verstrynge will explain how and why the ECHW was established, how the Committee works, how to submit a dossier and the do's and don'ts. The session will end with a question and answer session.

Dec 15 2023, 12:00 CET - Defence research at the university: strengthened national & European funding channels and ethical challenges
High international tensions are pushing more and more states to modernise and expand their defence apparatus. Both within the European Union and NATO, as well as within our own country, budgets for defence-related research are soaring: the European Defence Fund and the Defence Research Action (DEFRA) programme of Belspo and the Royal Higher Institute of Defence are examples. 
This not only provides new sources of funding for high-tech scientific research, but also raises questions. How do we as a university community deal with research that explicitly aims at defence applications? What are the parameters for ethical scrutiny? We enter the debate with the members of the Ethics Committee Dual Use, Military Use and Misuse of Research Results (ECDMM)!


If you have any questions, contact the VUB Researcher Training & Development Office