About us

We are an independent body that examines and advises on ethical issues arising from developments in bioscience and health.

Aims and values

We aim to inform policy and public debate through timely consideration of the ethical questions raised by biological and medical research so that the benefits to society are realised in a way that is consistent with public values.

Council members

The main role of the Council is to consider questions of strategic direction, topic identification, review of ongoing work and overseeing the range and quality of outputs and activities. The Council critically reviews the work of working groups at key stages during the projects, so as to ultimately adopt the final outputs and reports.

The Executive

The Executive team support the work of the Council.

Our funding

We were established by the trustees of the Nuffield Foundation in 1991, and since 1994 it has been funded jointly by the Foundation, the Medical Research Council and Wellcome.

Governance

The Governing Board was established by our funders in 2017. It is responsible for reviewing and challenging our work, providing assurance that we're operating within our remit and is committing expenditure in line with the terms of the funding grant and the goals of the Strategic Plan.