The University of Alberta Faculty of Law would like to congratulate our colleague, Professor Catherine Bell on being selected to receive one of only 45 awards (out of over 140 applications), for the University of Alberta's SSHRC Special Competition ($10,000), for her project entitled, "Law, ethics and the products of research derived from collaborations with aboriginal peoples".
Professor Bell explained that the money will be used to hire a law student to work with her on a project exploring academic institutional ethics policies which seek to respect Indigenous laws in collaborative research involving human participants. The project will focus on the opportunities and challenges posed by institutional policy, changing professional ethical norms, and Canadian property law in attaining these aspirations. Professor Bell commented that the fundamental question her project will ask is: "What might research policy and policy making look like if we assume equality between Indigenous and non-Indigenous laws and institutions in research collaborations?"
On describing the project in more detail, Professor Bell noted that the project will ask "what does a commitment to respecting Indigenous law mean?", in terms of:
1. Ethical norms influencing academic policy;
2. Institutional thinking about normative obligations, professional responsibility (e.g. rigour and impartiality of research), and legal rights.
3. Institutional thinking about what we mean by research and meritorious research.
4. Institutional process (e.g. authority over academic matters, control over direction of dissemination of research, sub-granting eligibility issues, ERB review processes and requirements)
5. Existing law, legal instruments and policy (e.g. funding transfer agreements, faculty agreements, curriculum agreements, copyright arrangements)