Dr Adamu Addissie holds a Wellcome Trust Biomedical Ethics Studentship to investigate the feasibility of introducing Rapid Ethical Assessment into normal research practice in Ethiopia.
The idea for the project came during earlier research on podoconiosis in a remote rural community in southern Ethiopia, where some of the assumptions underlying 'Northern' research ethics were found not to fit well with local principles and customs. Professor Bobbie Farsides suggested use of Rapid Ethical Assessment in this setting, with very successful results. She is now Dr Adamu's main supervisor as he works with researchers, ethics committees and lay people in Ethiopia to investigate the benefits and limitations of using this technique for a range of studies in a range of communities. This project is still in its first year, and brings ethicists and global health researchers at Brighton and Sussex Medical School together with clinicians, ethicists and public health experts in five research institutions in Ethiopia.
