Stavros Niarchos Foundation Bioethics Academy

In 2019, the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics (JHU) in conjunction with the Bioethics Chair at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) launched a new initiative called the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Bioethics Academy (SNFBA). The SNFBA is exclusively supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) and was created with the intent to support and enhance knowledge and awareness for bioethics in Greece.

The three main components of the SNFBA are:

  1. An intensive bioethics course offered every year at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) in Athens, Greece;
  2. Annual in-depth workshops alternating between Zurich, Switzerland (hosted at ETH) and Baltimore, USA (hosted by JHU). These workshops will include faculty from the Summer Course along with additional visiting faculty. Approximately 20 attendees will be invited per workshop, based on their interest in further training and education in bioethics and their aptitude for bioethics. Workshop content will be topical and developed with input from the selected participants. The program will include presentations by all participants, intensive case analysis and consultation (with at least some actual cases provided by participants), train-the-trainer exercises so that participants can return to their institutions/workplaces to help educate their peers, and additional specialized content.
  1. An alumni network created for summer course participants, all of whom will automatically be members.  In addition to providing news, resources and information via a dedicated SNFBA website, email, and social media channels, the network will be a means for staying in touch with other SNFBA alumni in Greece and bioethics faculty at JHU and ETH. The network will host virtual discussions via webinar and convene in-person reunions and events in conjunction with the timing of the annual summer course and SNF Annual International Conference in Athens.

4th Annual Stavros Niarchos Foundation Bioethics Academy Intensive Course

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Bioethics Academy (SNFBA) is co-directed by Prof. Jeffrey Kahn, the Andreas C. Dracopoulos Director of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics (JHU), and Prof. Effy Vayena, Head of the Health Ethics and Policy Lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH).

Objective
The 4th Annual SNFBA will be a three-day intensive course focusing on Ethical Issues across the Biomedical Research Spectrum and will include lectures by international faculty and small group discussions facilitated by SNFBA faculty from JHU, ETH, and Greek universities.

Topics will include:

  • Foundations of Bioethics
  • Informed Consent
  • Public Health Ethics
  • Global Health Ethics
  • Research with Pregnant Women
  • Stem Cell Research
  • Genomics
  • Digital Health & AI
  • Legal Framework for Research

Dates of the Event

June 19-21, 2023

Place of Event
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) in Athens

Cost
The SNFBA is free to accepted participants, and fully supported through the generosity of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).  Lodging (and travel where required) is provided to accepted participants who reside outside of Athens.  The total number of participants is limited to 50 to preserve a high-quality experience.

Eligibility
Applications are encouraged from professionals working in institutions in Greece, with the following experience and expertise:

  • Professionals working in, or overseeing, clinical research
  • Medical, pharmacology, and biology students interested in developing capacity in clinical research
  • Members of committees performing biomedical research ethics review
  • Professionals working in health and science policy

The deadline for application is Wednesday, April 12. Click here to apply now!

For questions please contact Katerina Ligomenides (snfbagreece@gmail.com)

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation is not involved in the evaluation of applications or selection of participants in any way.

Intensive Course Faculty

Co-Directors

Jeffrey Kahn, PhD, MPH - Andreas C. Dracopoulos Director, Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics
Jeffrey Kahn, PhD, MPH
Andreas C. Dracopoulos Director; Robert Henry Levi and Ryda Hecht Levi Professor of Bioethics and Public Policy

Jeffrey Kahn, PhD, MPH
Andreas C. Dracopoulos Director of the Berman Institute of Bioethics; Robert Henry Levi and Ryda Hecht Levi Professor of Bioethics and Public Policy

Jeffrey Kahn, PhD, MPH, is the Andreas C. Dracopoulos Director of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, a position he assumed in July 2016. From 2011, he has been the inaugural Robert Henry Levi and Ryda Hecht Levi Professor of Bioethics and Public Policy.  He is also Professor in the Dept. of Health Policy and Management of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  He works in a variety of areas of bioethics, exploring the intersection of ethics and health/science policy, including human and animal research ethics, public health, and ethical issues in emerging biomedical technologies.

Prof. Kahn has served on numerous state and federal advisory panels. He is currently chair of National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Board on Health Sciences Policy, and has previously chaired its committee on the Use of Chimpanzees in Biomedical and Behavioral Research (2011); the committee on Ethics Principles and Guidelines for Health Standards for Long Duration and Exploration Spaceflights (2014); and a committee on the Ethical, Social, and Policy Considerations of Mitochondrial Replacement Techniques (2016).  He also formerly served as a member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee.

In addition to committee leadership and membership, Prof. Kahn is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and an elected Fellow of The Hastings Center.  He was also the founding president of the Association of Bioethics Program Directors, an office he held from 2006-2010.

Prof. Kahn is a co-principal investigator with Berman Institute faculty member Gail Geller, ScD, MHS, on GUIDE: Genomic Uses in Infectious Disease and Epidemics, an NIH-funded project to study the largely unexplored ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) of genomics as applied to infectious disease.

Prof. Kahn’s publications include Contemporary Issues in BioethicsBeyond Consent: Seeking Justice in Research (two editions); and Oxford Handbook of Public Health Ethics, as well as over 135 scholarly and research articles.  He also speaks widely across the U.S. and around the world on a range of bioethics topics, in addition to frequent media outreach.  Prior to joining the faculty at Johns Hopkins, Prof. Kahn was Director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Minnesota.

Effy Vayena, PhD - Chair in Bioethics, ETH Zurich and Chair of the Hellenic National Bioethics and Technoethics Commission
Effy Vayena
Chair in Bioethics, ETH Zurich

Effy Vayena 
Chair in Bioethics, ETH Zurich

Effy Vayena is a Professor of Bioethics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETHZ) and renowned expert at the intersection of medicine, data, and ethics. Her work focuses on important societal issues of data and technology as they relate to scientific progress and how it is or should be applied to public and personal health.

Vayena completed her education as a social historian with a PhD in Medical History from the University of Minnesota. A keen interest in health policy has led her to work with the World Health Organization. Upon her return to academia, Vayena was awarded a professorship by the Swiss National Science Foundation. She founded the Health Ethics and Policy Lab to tackle pressing questions that arise through technological advances such as genomic technologies and big data analytics in healthcare and research.

She received her habilitation from the University of Zurich in the field of bioethics and policy and has been appointed a Visiting Professor at the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School and a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, where she was previously a Fellow. She is a member of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences and chairs the Ethical, Legal and Societal Implications advisory group of the Swiss Personalized Health Network, a national infrastructure and research program aiming to advance personalized health in Switzerland.

Vayena is a leading expert in the dynamic and diverse field of health data and ethics, successfully leveraging her academic work and international network to promote a fruitful debate about the ethics of health in the digital age. She has previously worked with the Wellcome Trust, OECD, Commonwealth Fund, Chatham House, and academic institutions and governments around the world. Since May 2021 she is the chair of the Hellenic National Bioethics and Technoethics Commission.

Lecturing Faculty and Small Group Discussion Leaders

Tom Beauchamp, PhD - Georgetown University
Tom Beauchamp, PhD
Professor Emeritus, Georgetown University

Dr. Beauchamp is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Georgetown University’s Kennedy Institute of Ethics. He took graduate degrees from Yale University and The Johns Hopkins University, where he received his PhD in 1970. He then joined the faculty of the Philosophy Department at Georgetown in 1970, and in the mid-1970s accepted a joint appointment at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics. In 1975, he joined the staff of the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, where he drafted the bulk of The Belmont Report (1978) at the U. S. National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Beauchamp’s research interests are in the ethics of human-subjects research, the ethics of animal research ethics, the place of universal principles and rights in biomedical ethics, methods of bioethics, Hume and the history of modern philosophy, and business ethics. Beauchamp co-edited (with George G. Brenkert) The Oxford Handbook of Business Ethics, and edited a 1,000-page book of original articles, The Oxford Handbook of Ethics and Animals, which is a comprehensive, state-of-the-art presentation of the field not possible until very recently.

In 2004, Dr. Beauchamp was given the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH) in recognition of outstanding contributions and significant publications in bioethics and the humanities. In 2003, he was presented Georgetown University’s Career Recognition Award, which is awarded to a faculty member in the University each year for distinguished research across a career. In 1994, Indiana University awarded Beauchamp its first “Memorial Award for Furthering Greater Understanding and Exchange of Opinions between the Professions of Law and Medicine.”  In 2010 he was presented the Henry Beecher Award of the Hastings Center, New York, for a lifetime of contributions to research ethics and other areas of bioethics. In 2011 Beauchamp was given the Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Research Ethics by Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research (PRIM&R).

Alessandro Blasimme, PhD - ETH Zurich
Alessandro Blasimme
Senior Scientist, Bioethics

Alessandro Blasimme 
Senior Scientist, Bioethics

Alessandro Blasimme is a reader in bioethics at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zürich). He has held research appointments at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) as well as the University of Zürich, before joining ETH Zürich. In 2013 he received a Fulbright-Schuman Scholarship to undertake research at the Program on Science, Technology and Society, Harvard University (USA) where he was a fellow. His research focuses on ethical and policy issues in biomedical innovation and biotechnology. His areas of expertise include translational medicine, precision medicine, regenerative medicine, genetic engineering, digital health and ageing. He has published widely in leading bioethics and medical journals and he is a principal investigator in national as well as international research consortia.

He is a visiting professor in bioethics at La Sapienza University of Rome (2022).

Ruth Faden, PhD, MPH - Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics
Ruth R. Faden, PhD, MPH
Berman Institute Founder; Philip Franklin Wagley Professor of Biomedical Ethics

Ruth R. Faden, PhD, MPH, is the founder of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics and its director from 1995 until 2016. She was the inaugural Andreas C. Dracopoulos Director (2014-­2016) and currently is, and has been since 1995, the inaugural Philip Franklin Wagley Professor of Biomedical Ethics. Dr. Faden’s research focuses on structural justice theory and on national and global challenges in Public Health and Science policy, food and agriculture, women’s health, including the rights and interests of pregnant women, health systems design and priority setting, and advances in science and technology. Currently Dr. Faden is working at the intersection of structural justice and the COVID-19 response, primarily in vaccine policy and K-12 education. Her latest book, with Madison Powers, is Structural Injustice: Power, Advantage, and Human Rights.

Jeffrey Kahn, PhD, MPH - Andreas C. Dracopoulos Director, Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics
Jeffrey Kahn, PhD, MPH
Andreas C. Dracopoulos Director; Robert Henry Levi and Ryda Hecht Levi Professor of Bioethics and Public Policy

Jeffrey Kahn, PhD, MPH
Andreas C. Dracopoulos Director of the Berman Institute of Bioethics; Robert Henry Levi and Ryda Hecht Levi Professor of Bioethics and Public Policy

Jeffrey Kahn, PhD, MPH, is the Andreas C. Dracopoulos Director of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, a position he assumed in July 2016. From 2011, he has been the inaugural Robert Henry Levi and Ryda Hecht Levi Professor of Bioethics and Public Policy.  He is also Professor in the Dept. of Health Policy and Management of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  He works in a variety of areas of bioethics, exploring the intersection of ethics and health/science policy, including human and animal research ethics, public health, and ethical issues in emerging biomedical technologies.

Prof. Kahn has served on numerous state and federal advisory panels. He is currently chair of National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Board on Health Sciences Policy, and has previously chaired its committee on the Use of Chimpanzees in Biomedical and Behavioral Research (2011); the committee on Ethics Principles and Guidelines for Health Standards for Long Duration and Exploration Spaceflights (2014); and a committee on the Ethical, Social, and Policy Considerations of Mitochondrial Replacement Techniques (2016).  He also formerly served as a member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee.

In addition to committee leadership and membership, Prof. Kahn is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and an elected Fellow of The Hastings Center.  He was also the founding president of the Association of Bioethics Program Directors, an office he held from 2006-2010.

Prof. Kahn is a co-principal investigator with Berman Institute faculty member Gail Geller, ScD, MHS, on GUIDE: Genomic Uses in Infectious Disease and Epidemics, an NIH-funded project to study the largely unexplored ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) of genomics as applied to infectious disease.

Prof. Kahn’s publications include Contemporary Issues in BioethicsBeyond Consent: Seeking Justice in Research (two editions); and Oxford Handbook of Public Health Ethics, as well as over 135 scholarly and research articles.  He also speaks widely across the U.S. and around the world on a range of bioethics topics, in addition to frequent media outreach.  Prior to joining the faculty at Johns Hopkins, Prof. Kahn was Director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Minnesota.

Jeremy Sugarman, MD, MPH, MA - Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics
Jeremy Sugarman, MD, MPH, MA
Deputy Director for Medicine; Harvey M. Meyerhoff Professor of Bioethics and Medicine

Jeremy Sugarman, MD, MPH, MA 

  • Harvey M. Meyerhoff Professor of Bioethics and Medicine;
  • Professor of Medicine;
  • Professor of Health Policy and Management; and
  • Deputy Director for Medicine at the Berman Institute of Bioethics

Jeremy Sugarman, MD, MPH, MA, is the Harvey M. Meyerhoff Professor of Bioethics and Medicine, Professor of Medicine, Professor of Health Policy and Management, and deputy director for medicine of the Berman Institute of Bioethics at the Johns Hopkins University. He is an internationally recognized leader in bioethics with particular expertise in applying empirical methods and evidence-based standards for evaluating and analyzing bioethical issues. His contributions to bioethics and policy include his work on the ethics of informed consent, umbilical cord blood banking, stem cell research, international HIV prevention research, global health and research oversight. Dr. Sugarman is the author of over 400 articles, reviews and book chapters.  He has also edited or co-edited four books (Beyond Consent: Seeking Justice in ResearchEthics of Research with Human Subjects: Selected Policies and ResourcesEthics in Primary Care; and Methods in Medical Ethics).  Dr. Sugarman is on the editorial boards of several academic journals.

Dr. Sugarman consults and speaks internationally on a range of issues related to bioethics. He was senior policy and research analyst for the White House Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, consultant to the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, and Senior Advisor to the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. He also served on the Maryland Stem Cell Research Commission.

He was the founding director of the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities and History of Medicine at Duke University where he was also a professor of medicine and philosophy. He was appointed as an Academic Icon at the University of Malaya and is a faculty affiliate of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University.

Dr. Sugarman is currently a member of the Scientific and Research Advisory Board for the Canadian Blood Service and the Ethics and Public Policy Committees of the International Society for Stem Cell Research. He is co-chair of the Johns Hopkins’ Institutional Stem Cell Research Oversight Committee. In addition, he is chair of the Ethics Working Group of the HIV Prevention Trials Network and co-leads the Ethics and Regulatory Core of the NIH Pragmatic Trials Collaboratory.

Dr. Sugarman has been elected as a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation, Association of American Physicians, and the Institute of Medicine. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American College of Physicians and the Hastings Center. He also received a Doctor of Science, honoris causa, from New York Medical College.

Effy Vayena, PhD - Chair in Bioethics, ETH Zurich and Chair of the Hellenic National Bioethics and Technoethics Commission
Effy Vayena
Chair in Bioethics, ETH Zurich

Effy Vayena 
Chair in Bioethics, ETH Zurich

Effy Vayena is a Professor of Bioethics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETHZ) and renowned expert at the intersection of medicine, data, and ethics. Her work focuses on important societal issues of data and technology as they relate to scientific progress and how it is or should be applied to public and personal health.

Vayena completed her education as a social historian with a PhD in Medical History from the University of Minnesota. A keen interest in health policy has led her to work with the World Health Organization. Upon her return to academia, Vayena was awarded a professorship by the Swiss National Science Foundation. She founded the Health Ethics and Policy Lab to tackle pressing questions that arise through technological advances such as genomic technologies and big data analytics in healthcare and research.

She received her habilitation from the University of Zurich in the field of bioethics and policy and has been appointed a Visiting Professor at the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School and a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, where she was previously a Fellow. She is a member of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences and chairs the Ethical, Legal and Societal Implications advisory group of the Swiss Personalized Health Network, a national infrastructure and research program aiming to advance personalized health in Switzerland.

Vayena is a leading expert in the dynamic and diverse field of health data and ethics, successfully leveraging her academic work and international network to promote a fruitful debate about the ethics of health in the digital age. She has previously worked with the Wellcome Trust, OECD, Commonwealth Fund, Chatham House, and academic institutions and governments around the world. Since May 2021 she is the chair of the Hellenic National Bioethics and Technoethics Commission.

In-Depth winter two-day Workshops

These workshops will alternate between Zurich, Switzerland (hosted at ETH) and Baltimore,  U.S.A. (hosted at JHU) and will include faculty from the Summer Course along with additional visiting faculty. Approximately 20 attendees will be invited per workshop, based on their interest in further training and education in bioethics and their aptitude for bioethics.

Workshop content will be topical and developed with input from the selected participants.  The program will include presentations by all participants, intensive case analysis and consultation (with at least some actual cases provided by participants), train-the-trainer exercises so that participants can return to their institutions/workplaces to help educate their peers, and additional specialized content.

Alumni Network

The third component of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Bioethics Academy will be an Alumni Network created for summer course participants, all of whom will automatically be members.

In addition to providing news, resources and information via a dedicated SNFBA website, email, and social media channels, the network will be a means for staying in touch with other SNFBA alumni in Greece and bioethics faculty at JHU and ETH. The network will host virtual discussions via webinar and convene in-person reunions and events in conjunction with the timing of the annual summer course and SNF Annual International Conference in Athens.