Research Ethic Standards: Refashioning Scientific Dialogue (2021)
UNESCO in collaboration with INCT (Instituto Nacional de ciencia y teknologia, Timor-Leste) organised a national Science Technology and Innovation (STI) landscape/Technical Need Assessment (TNA) e-survey on February – March 2020 to identify science and technological gaps and priority needs for Timor-Leste. The survey was the first step towards developing a coherent and integrated strategy tailored to the specific situation of the country. The survey has identified, among others, the need to have a blueprint of research ethic standard for INCT.
Established in 2014, INCT is a body to develop and support science technology and innovation programmes in Timor-Leste within the Strategic Development Plan 2011-2030 (SPD 2011-2030) to foster the development of STI in the national level through education, research and community development. INCT has requested support from UNESCO in establishing the ethical standards in research in Timor-Leste.
The INCT STI research’s ethical standards including the Terms of Reference (ToR), standard operational procedure (SOP), and code of conduct for the Ethics Committee, is developed in early 2021. As follow-up action, an online training on Research Ethic Standards: Refashioning Scientific Dialogue was organised on October and the lectures were recorded for this e-learning platform with aim to ensure the application of appropriate ethical standards.