Research receives the First Prize in Excellent Research category at the 2021 UIIN Awards

Research in the ethical dilemmas that arise in multidisciplinary, international and cross-sectoral collaborations designed to address Grand Challenges, such as climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic, has won the First Prize at the 2021 University-Industry Interaction (UIIN) Awards in the category of Excellent Research. The UIIN brings together leading international and practice leaders from business, the higher education sector, science, policy agencies, and governments to shape how universities engage with society.

The research presented at the 2021 UIIN Conference highlighted the lack of formal support structures for the preparation of senior decision-makers in identifying and managing ethical dilemmas in Grand Challenges collaborations. The preliminary findings of the study, which is funded by the APM and led by Dr Effie Konstantinou, have shown that senior leaders and experts lead multi-stakeholder collaborations and address ethical issues based on their personal codes of ethics.

Dr Konstantinou said: “The lack of preparation on ethical matters in business and emerging professions is alarming. This study builds awareness of this issue by showing the implications that this lack of preparation on ethics has for the interprofessional teams which address Grand Challenges. A comprehensive toolkit and continual professional development course on ethics, which are being designed for this study, will create the space and practical support that leaders need to understand what ethics means in articulating, designing and effectively managing sustainable solutions for Grand Challenges. This award shows that this work is needed now, more than ever before.”