Vancouver, BC (January 26, 2011): GRAND researcher and Ryerson professor Dr. Deborah Fels has been appointed to the Interadvisory Panel on Research Ethics (The Panel or PRE). She brings to the panel a unique perspective drawn from her groundbreaking research in innovative interfaces for people with disabilities and multi-modal computer applications such as emotive captioning and vibrotactile systems.
Dr. Fels joins the twelve person panel, along with four other new members, who represent a diverse range of backgrounds including human rights, ethics, law, psychology, medicine and new media. The various disciplines is reflective of the many, different research areas involving human subjects.
The Interadvisory Panel on Research Ethics is mandated to promote high ethical standards of conduct in research involving humans. Established in 2001 by three federal granting agencies, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), also known as the TriCouncil, the Panel has far reaching impacts on universities and research centres across Canada and acts as the Canadian representative at the international level.
“It is a great honor to be selected to sit on the Panel of Research Ethics”, said Dr. Deborah Fels. “One of the issues I’m most interested in addressing is the adaption of protocols specific to non-medical research scenarios, qualitative studies and to support inclusive practices.”
“Tri-Council Policy Statement (TCPS) 2 provides the framework in which these alternatives are possible,” continued Dr. Fels. “I look forward to assisting GRAND researchers in making TCPS 2 work for them in their own situations and obtaining feedback on issues that arise during this process.”
For more information on the TCPS 2, click here.
Dr. Fels is one of more than 60 principal researchers within the GRAND Network of Centres of Excellence, where she is the project lead on INCLUDE as well as a researcher on two other projects, AESTHVIS and DINS. At Ryerson University, she is a professor in the Ted Rogers School of Information Technology Management, and director of the Centre for Learning Technologies. A professional engineer, Dr. Fels received one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 awards in 2001.
Contact:
Grace Battiston
GRAND-NCE
Director, Communications
t: 778 370 1013; c: 604 318 4070