German Reference Centre for
Ethics in the Life Sciences (DRZE)
Bonner Talweg 57
53113 Bonn
Germany
Role in project
The DRZE will provide an online FAQ-forum to evaluate ethical issues relevant for IMAGEN. A platform for discussing ethical issues, including a library section that makes relevant normative documents of the participating countries available to all consortium members will be established. Together with ZI (Mannheim) workshops dedicated to specific ethical issues will be organized.
Project Leader
|
Dr. Dirk Lanzerath Phone: +49 (228) 33641930 Fax: +49 (228) -33641940  Contact |
 |
Project Staff
|
Dr. Bert Heinrichs: DRZE, Head of Research Department Contact |
 |
|
Dr. Dr. Tade Matthias Spranger: Institute of Science and Ethics, Head of Research Group “Norms for modern Life Sciences Contact |
 |
Institute Presentation
The history of the DRZE
Since 2004 the German Reference Centre for Ethics in the Life Sciences (DRZE) has been research centre of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Humanities for the elaboration of "Prerequisites, Norms and Criteria of Ethical Judgment Formation in the Life Sciences”. It is affiliated as central scientific institution to the University of Bonn.
Following a call for tender by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) the DRZE has been set up by the Institute of Science and Ethics (IWE), Bonn in collaboration with the University of Bonn as a national documentation and information centre in order to provide scientific foundations for a qualified bioethical discussion on a German, European and international level. During its setting up phase (1999-2003) DRZE was funded by the BMBF.
DRZE comprehensively provides scientific information which is required for a qualified formation of opinion and judgment in the area of ethics in the life sciences and medicine. The main focus lies in the scientific preparation of the information.
The DRZE is in charge of:
- collecting, presenting, and providing information of the different scientific areas that matter to the various current debates concerning bioethics in science, society, and politics,
- elaborating the scientific prerequisites for a qualified formation of opinion and providing the accessibility of those prerequisites in different formats,
- representing the German bioethical debate in an international and European context as well as introducing international and European issues to the German debate.
Major research activities
- Value-added Information and Publications
Taking into account the different informational needs of various users DRZE provides topical information on current issues in bioethics in a number of different, user-oriented formats:
the online information In Focus deals with the most current issues in bioethics and gives a brief and accurate overview of the scientific, legal and moral aspects of ongoing debates; they are presented in form of short introductory texts and contain notes on some further literature as well as relevant links including further internet information services offered by the DRZE. The series Ethics in the life sciences - DRZE expert reports offers in-depth reports on central bioethical issues comprising detailed bibliographical notes Guidelines, laws and statements on particular issues are collected in a Dossier. If appropriate, updated editions will cover recent developments in the debate. The trilingual Thesaurus Ethics in the Life Sciences affords assistance with the systematical indexing of bioethical documents.
- Scientific Conferences and Workshops
The DRZE plans and organizes different types of scientific conferences and workshops for researchers as well as key groups such as journalists, teachers and parliamentarians. The aim is to inform about the latest developments in bioethics, to stimulate the interdisciplinary discourse, and to support the public debate about bioethical issues. - The specialist library and documentation
The DRZE library comprises books, documents and professional journals in the area of bioethics and ethics in the sciences. It provides the opportunity to gather information and study on site. It also makes information available via the DRZE's web pages. - The databases
The following databases can be accessed via the DRZE's web pages:
the integrated bioethics literature database BELIT a list of New titles on ethics in the life sciences the bioethics communications and information system BEKIS which provides information about institutions and research projects related to bioethics a diary of bioethics Events an annotated and structured list of Bioethics-links of sites relevant to ethics in the life sciences
Summary of experience relevant to IMAGEN
The team is experienced in ethical review processes on local and European level. The DRZE is experienced in hosting and developing databases (literature, research projects, training materials), in thesaurus development, creation of web based data pooling and communication platforms, management of national and Eurpean reseach projects and networks as well as organizing international conferences and expert workshops.
Top-Links
Project Structure
