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Oxford University to launch UK’s first neuroethics centre

24 June 2008 

Oxford University is to launch the UK’s first neuroethics centre following an award of more than £800,000 from the Wellcome Trust.

The grant has been awarded to Professor Julian Savulescu, a member of the philosophy faculty and director of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics. It will help support the best research in biomedical ethics and will be used to strengthen collaboration and support new research fellowships and studentships.

The award will fund the establishment of the Oxford Centre for Neuroethics. The Centre will bring together researchers from a wide range of disciplines and address current advances in neurosciences and other areas of related clinical medicine.

Professor Savulescu said: “Neuroscience studies the brain and mind, and thereby some of the most profound aspects of human existence. In the last decade, advances in imaging and manipulating the brain have raised ethical challenges, particularly about the moral limits of the use of such technology, leading to the new discipline of neuroethics.

“The Oxford Centre for Neuroethics, led by experts from ethics, philosophy of mind, neuroscience, neurology, psychiatry and legal theory, will be the first international centre in the UK dedicated to neuroethical research. Research will focus on questions about the enhancement of cognition and mood; borderline consciousness and severe brain impairment; free will, criminal responsibility, and addiction; and the neural basis of moral decision-making.”

The Centre for Neuroethics will be located within the existing Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics. The Uehiro Centre is one of the world’s leading centres for work in applied ethics. Professor Savulescu is internationally recognized as a world-class bioethicist and his work is highly influential here and abroad.

Head of Humanities at Oxford University, Professor Sally Shuttleworth, said: “The award is a tribute to the work of Professor Savulescu and his colleagues, and will establish Oxford as a world-leading centre in the rapidly emerging field of neuroethics. 

“The Centre will bring together researchers from Europe, Australia and USA, across a wide range of disciplines, from ethics, philosophy of mind, law, psychiatry, and neurosciences to address current advances in neurosciences and other areas of related clinical medicine.  It will link relevant research groups around the world and seek to engage policy makers and the general public.”

Clare Matterson, the Wellcome Trust’s Director of Medicine, Society and History, said: “The nature of biomedical research means it is constantly challenging our ideas about the world, ourselves and our health. Research into ethical issues surrounding medical science and healthcare is essential if our society is going to be able to make informed decisions about research and medicine.

“This significant and strategic grant will allow the successful group to build on their impressive track record in biomedical ethical research. By providing this level of funding, we expect them to develop future generations of researchers, extend their existing UK and international collaborations, as well as develop new ways of multidisciplinary working.”

Professor Julian Savulescu will be available for interview.

For more information please contact the Oxford University Press Office on 01865 270046 or press.office@admin.ox.ac.uk

Notes to editors:

  • The Wellcome Trust is the largest charity in the UK. It funds innovative biomedical research, in the UK and internationally, spending around £650 million each year to support the brightest scientists with the best ideas. It also helps to ensure that the findings of biomedical ethics research are passed on to policy makers and healthcare practitioners to help inform their decisions. The Wellcome Trust supports public debate about biomedical research and its impact on health and well-being. www.wellcome.ac.uk
  • The Wellcome Trust award will commence in October 2008 and last for five years. Oxford University is one of three research groups to receive a grant – the others are research groups based at King’s College London and The Institute of Psychiatry.
  • Oxford University’s faculty of philosophy is one of the largest in the world, having around 150 members, roughly 60 of who are permanent postholders.
  • The Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics was established in 2002 with the support of the Uehiro Foundation on Ethics and Education of Japan. It is an integral part of the philosophy faculty of Oxford University, one of the great centres of academic excellence in philosophical ethics. Academics at the Centre research a broad range of topics in practical ethics and moral philosophy including neuroethics, bioethics, medical ethics, business ethics, terrorism, and international justice.
  • This award will be used to set up the UK’s first interdisciplinary centre for neuroethics, which will be called the Oxford Centre for Neuroethics. For more information on Oxford University’s Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, visit http://www.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/

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