The Instituto de Ética Clínica Francisco Vallés of the Universidad Europea de Madrid invite you to participate at the workshop Research ethics in disaster: The challenge of vulnerable subject on 7-8 October 2014

Workshop Description

This will be a joint workshop organised by the COST Action on Disaster Bioethics and Instituto de Ética Clínica Francisco Vallés, Universidad Europea de Madrid. The aim of the workshop is to "fuse" two kinds of scholars: veterans with extensive experience in humanitarian and disaster medicine on one hand with a diverse group of bioethicists and other relevant disciplines (such as sociology of medicine). In order to initiate a concrete joint research we focus on three kinds of vulnerable patients: (1) mother-infant dyad, adolescents, and (3) patients with pre-existing psychiatric disorders (e.g. chronic schizophrenia, autism).

The more specific foci of the workshop include:

  • The challenges of consent to research on the care of vulnerable patients in situations of disaster.
  • Legal and ethical issues of guardianship in disaster
  • Research on the efficacy of disaster relief in relation to vulnerable populations
  • The challenge of quality control and improvement of practice when ordinary research is unethical.
  • Issues of exclusion of vulnerable patients from approved research protocols

Our planned deliverables are following:

  1. An academic article linking the expertise of actual disasters to the ethical issues on research
  2. An international media article on the same subject including policy recommendations
  3. Up to 15 participants involved in attending and discussing the issue at the workshop

Work on a common analysis framework that could be used in teaching the subject at universities

Practical Information

The Workshop will be held at the Universidad Europea de Madrid, Campus de Villaviciosa de Odón Madrid.
Abstracts are invited for workshop presentation addressing any of the above themes. Deadline for abstract is September 12th, 2014. Submit abstracts (up to 500 words) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
COST will cover the travel and accommodation expenses of up 10 participants in the workshop. Reimbursement is available to Action members only.
General Questions or comments can be addressed to Emanuele Valenti at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.