It is my pleasure to welcome you to the Research Ethics Conference 2021, run from the University of Exeter, UK and reaching right across the globe. We are very grateful to the SWDTP for their tremendous support and funding with this event. 

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Why are we here today? For me personally, ethics has been a huge part of my career in teaching and is very important in my current education research. All research has high ethical considerations towards its participants – from people, to animals, to tissues, and beyond – let alone the implications results can have. It dictates all projects and should be considered from the first moment a new idea appears in your mind. Ethics has huge power over the direction it can take.

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Despite this, there has been no place to have an open interdisciplinary discussion about research ethics. These discussions need to be holistic and global - discussions with researchers from a range of fields that makes you think in a different way. I want to say, one day, principles from engineering ethics have been implemented into social sciences ethics, or from medical ethics into the humanities, and so on. 

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Today, we have a phenomenal range of talks and workshops, all about research ethics. From talks on university policy to medicine, and workshops from live podcast recording to LEGO serious play, there is something for everyone to get involved in. 

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I would like to say a huge thank you to the committee behind REC21, who not only have managed to put this conference together in a pandemic, but alongside their own research projects and other commitments. Also, thank you to the session chairs and presenters for being part of the day. 

I hope you enjoy this conference as much as we have enjoyed putting it together.

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Warren Speed

REC Founder and Chair