UNESCO Chair on Bioethis at Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM concentrates on efforts in accelerating Bioethics growth in Indonesia and the Asia Pacific region.

The program at UGM is expected to support the development of Bioethics in Indonesia both in terms of science and research, as well as Bioethics mainstreaming in various aspects and fields of science and practices including among academia, managers, enterprises, and policy makers.

Bioethics in Indonesia has become a substantial field to develop at this time. Coupled with the increasingly rapid technological developments that are integrated in different aspects of life, it is necessary to apply Bioethics to handle the complex ethical issues and consequences.

Since Bioethics is not yet widely known and applied in Indonesia, the lack of Bioethics experts and practitioners demands innovation to speed up the Bioethics development in Indonesia.

This proposed project responds to this gap by addressing the shortage of qualified Bioethics experts and teachers. However, this will only be achieved with close collaboration and partnership with different stakeholders beyond the field of Bioethics and Indonesia.

Our four main focuses are:

• Integration of Bioethics education into multiple disciplines at higher education/university level

Integration of Bioethics in higher education will be achieved through building collective commitment, training of trainers to support implementation of Bioethics education into each study program at UGM, and developing dialog among disciplines related to Bioethics. Internationalization of Bioethics Master Program UGM will be pursued to expand the project’s contribution to the growth of Bioethics programs in the Asia-Pacific region.

• Application of research ethics in every field of study and disciplines

Application of ethical research conduct in various fields of study will be achieved through promoting research ethics and scientific integrity among all researchers and scientists in Indonesia. The programs will support the development of research ethics committees for multidisciplinary sciences particularly Indonesia, and provide support for strategic research projects (especially the translational research) from the research ethics point of view.

• Empowerment of community through Bioethics related issues

Community empowerment through Bioethics will demonstrate the project’s multi-disciplinary dimension. The UNESCO Chair at UGM will work on the issue of ‘stateless’ society as one of the vulnerable and underserved society in Indonesia. Development of an online multipurpose Bioethics platform will enable the general public to access our Bioethics support services.

• Bioethics institutional sustainability.

Institutional sustainability is the key to ensure continued growth of Bioethics. Through the UNESCO Chair Program, the Centre for Bioethics and Medical Humanities at UGM will be one of the most active Bioethics centers in Indonesia and aspire to become a ‘center of excellence’ and take the responsibility for developing Bioethics for all sciences in Indonesia.