On 26 January 2021 all DATAETHICS Consortium members, students, project’s associate partners and external advisor gathered in an online meeting with the aim to officially “kick off” the project. Initially planned for November 2020 in Göttingen, the meeting was postponed and its format changed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Held on the Zoom platform, the meeting left participants higly motivated and confident about the significant impact the project will have.
Chaired by the coordinator, University Medical Center Göttingen, the meeting attracted 36 participants, including academic, administrative and student repesentatives of the DATAETHICS partner institutions, associate partners, and the project’s external advisor, Dr. Carlos Machado, who joined forces to analyse the strategy for updating the conceptual and ethical considerations that arise from Biomedical Big Data (BBD) collection and use.
The meeting offered a platform for the participants to jointly elaborate on the implementation of the project and for all to discuss shared tasks and gain the key information they need to successfully contribute to the project. Participants discussed and talked through various parts of the project, including dissemination, communication, collaboration and implementation, as well as financial and reporting strategies.
Despite the current COVID-19 crisis, and the inability for the Consortium to currently hold activities in-person, the DATAETHICS Consortium has an excellent basis for successful implementation of the project thanks to its extensive preparation and planning activies, clear strategy, adaptability and strong, long-standing collaboration. Over the next two and a half years, DATAETHICS will pursue its objectives, with the first step being the DATAETHICS pilot school held on 12-16 April 2021.