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Biography
Kathleen Salter is a social science researcher specialising in policy, ethics and public engagement with science and healthcare.
Kathleen graduated with a first-class BA in Sociology and Social Policy from the University of Nottingham in 2017. Her final-year dissertation, titled "A consideration of the role of social science in informing the regulatory debate surrounding human genome editing technologies," solidified her strong interest in bioethics, medical research policy, and science-societal communication. She further pursued these interests through an MA in Health Care Ethics and Law with distinction from the University of Manchester, an MA in Social Science Research Methods (Sociology) through the ESRC DTP '1+3' program, and undertaking a UKRI funded Policy Internship with the Royal Society Science Policy Department.
Research Summary
Research Title:
Towards a Socially Legitimate Animal Research Ethics Review: Advancing the Field of 'Public Engagement with Ethics'
Research Summary
This research project examines the shift towards incorporating non-expert (lay) perspectives in the governance of science and technology, highlighting their value for shaping research agendas. Drawing from the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS), which has laid the conceptual and methodological groundwork for strengthening public engagement in science initiatives, this thesis argues for extending this work to include the role of 'institutional ethics' in regulatory systems, thus advancing the field of 'Public Engagement with Ethics'.
Focusing on the UK's Animal Research and Ethical Review Bodies (AWERBs), the research addresses the historical complexities of public interaction with animal research and the inadequacies of current expert-driven regulatory practices in light of this "participatory turn". It introduces the concept of 'Imaginaries of Ethics' to conceptualise the 'ideal' ethical review process, as revealed through an analysis of policy documents and focus groups with lay participants. This research exposes a gap between expert-driven protocols guided by scientific rationality and the more political, embodied, and contextual ethical imaginaries of publics.
The thesis concludes with several recommendations for AWERBs, including the need for academic and commercial research institutions to allocate more time and support for exploratory ethical discussions. It also advocates for increased social science research to understand how publics engage with the topic of ethics, aiming to enhance ethical review systems and foster truly responsible research and innovation (RRI). This project was a collaborative ESRC studentship with the RSPCA.