Workshop on Fundamentals of Research Ethics

A one day workshop was held on the 4th of January 2019 at the National Institute for Mental Health, Mulleriyawa, Sri Lanka. This workshop is being organised as a part of capacity building component of the Medical Research Council, UK (MRC) funded South Asian Early Development and Research Capacity Building Project (SEARCH project).The workshop was open to any person interested in research ethics. The resource persons who spoke at the workshop included Prof. Athula Sumathipala, Dr. Jonathan Ives, Dr. Buddhika Fernando and Dr. Anna Chiumento. The workshop provided an opportunity for early and mid career researchers to expand their knowledge on ethics and implicate ethics as a mandatory component in their research. The workshop proved to be an excellent opportunity for researchers to network with other researchers in the respective fields of their research.

As Sri Lanka is a largely collectivistic and multicultural nation, which is host to many ethnicities and tolerant towards several beliefs, there are many aspects towards protecting an individual’s position within their social structure that need to be addressed. Identifying these needs, and other important considerations that are not immediately visible, when conducting research which aspires to maintain high standards (especially in ethics), will be difficult if PPIE is not incorporated into research at all stages. This includes the processes of research design, execution and publication.