History of the Research Committee

2013-2019

In May 2013, the IME Board of Trustees agreed that an IME Research Committee should be formed, with a view to nurturing the medical ethics research community within the UK. The founding members of the committee were Carwyn Rhys Hooper (Chair), Anna Smajdor, Zoe Fritz, and Bryan Vernon.

At its first meeting in January 2014, it was agreed that the committee should develop a database of UK-based ‘ethics experts’ and should advertise academic events (e.g., conferences) on the IME website. It was also agreed that the committee should organise an annual conference to enable academics, clinicians, and students to present the results of their research activities in analytical and empirical medical ethics.

The inaugural conference (‘The Cutting Edge in Biomedical Ethics Research’) took place in London in September 2014. Around 90 delegates attended the conference. Many delegates were undergraduate healthcare students and postgraduate bioethics students. Academics and clinicians from across the UK also came to present their work.

Following the 2014 conference, Lucy Frith, Merryn Ekberg, Silvia Camporesi, and Emma Nottingham joined the committee. The expanded group then organised the second IME research conference (‘Sharpening the Cutting Edge of Bioethics in the UK’). This conference took place in Newcastle in June 2015 and followed immediately after the UK Clinical Ethics Network annual conference. Once again, around 90 delegates attended the research conference and the balance of students, clinicians and academics remained stable.

Following the second conference, the IME Research Committee decided to work closely with the Postgraduate Student Council. This is the student committee that organises the annual Postgraduate Bioethics Conference. Although that Committee was not formally a part of the IME, the 10th Postgraduate Bioethics Conference (which took place in Manchester in September 2015) was financially supported by the IME.

The third IME Research Conference took place in Edinburgh in June 2016, immediately after the International Association of Bioethics Conference. We welcomed around 90 delegates from five continents for a very successful and productive day, during which students, academics, and clinicians presented their work. In July 2016, Richard Huxtable, Felicity Boardman, and Nathan Emmerich joined the committee, with Tom Douglas also joining as a representative from the Journal of Medical Ethics.

Further successful conferences followed in Liverpool in 2017, then in Oxford in 2018, which this time aligned with the International Conference on Clinical Ethics and Consultation (ICCEC). In 2018, Lucy Frith also led the development of guidance on the appointment, promotion, and recognition of UK medical ethics researchers. The guidance was published in the Journal of Medical Ethics and is available here.

2019-2025

The 2019 conference, ‘Concept, Classroom, and Clinic’, was held in Cardiff. The event provided an opportunity to thank the outgoing Chair, Carwyn Hooper. Lucy Frith became Chair of the Research Committee, which also welcomed as members Mikey Dunn and Brandy Schillace, the editor of Medical Humanities.

The covid-19 pandemic prevented an in-person conference from running as planned in Birmingham in 2020, although the event was able to run online the following year, with the theme ‘Maintaining trust in medicine in a “post-truth” world’. In 2021, the IME also hosted an online conference, ‘Ethics lessons from a pandemic’. Around this time, the Research Committee supported numerous online seminars (webinars), as well as refreshing and expanding its research funding awards.

The IME made it to Birmingham in 2022, with the conference ‘Being heard’. Leeds then played host to the 2023 conference, ‘Fairness in challenging times in health and health-care’, while London hosted the following year, with the theme ‘Contemporary considerations in medical ethics’.

The conference returned to Birmingham in 2025. The theme this time was ‘Looking Back – Looking Forward’, since this year marked the 50th anniversary of the Journal of Medical Ethics. The Research Committee has long enjoyed close links with the journal, with various editors, associate editors, and editorial board members having served on the committee, specifically Lucy Frith, Zoe Fritz, Tom Douglas, Mikey Dunn, and Richard Huxtable. Fittingly, the 2025 conference welcomed not only the first editor of the journal, but also some of those who helped to establish the Institute (you can read more about the history of the IME here).

Following the conference, Lucy Frith stepped down as chair and Richard Huxtable took up the position. The year ended with the launch of the new journal BMJ Practical Bioethics.

Former members

The IME and the Research Committee thanks those who have served as members of this Committee:

Felicity Boardman

Silvia Camporesi

Tom Douglas

Mikey Dunn

Merryn Ekberg

Nathan Emmerich

Zoe Fritz

Carwyn Hooper (Chair)

Emma Nottingham

Brandy Schillace

Anna Smajdor

Bryan Vernon