University of Mannheim Joins Nationwide Neuroethics Research Network

Neuroethicsdeals with ethical issues in neuroscientific research. The newly created network is intended to promote interdisciplinary exchange in this area, support young scientists and create a contact point for non-academic actors who are interested in neuroethical topics. Over the next four years, those involved in the project – the Research Center Jülich, the Berlin Charité, the University of Mannheim and the Open University of Hagen – will jointly organize conferences, workshops and retreat weeks for this purpose. Prof. Dr. Philipp Kellmeyer from the Data and Web Science Group at the University of Mannheim is responsible for involving interest groups and the public in the project.

“Currently, neurotechnological devices that are aimed directly at consumers and are not subject to medical device regulation are insufficiently tested, so that consumers can be misled about the actual capabilities of such devices,” explains Kellmeyer. For example, if they give brain data from the devices to the companies concerned, privacy violations and other undesirable consequences could occur. The question that would also need to be clarified is whether new methods of brain data analysis using AI methods can provide far-reaching insights into mental states and whether special protective rights for mental privacy are therefore necessary.

In Germany, neuroethical research has so far been poorly organized and is primarily advanced by individuals and their research groups, Kellmeyer continued. Networking the neuroethics community and exchanging ideas with social actors and political decision-makers is therefore necessary in order to bring ethical tensions into public debates and stimulate social discourse.

The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with a total of around one million euros. RHUNE is led by Prof. Dr. Bert Heinrichs, who works at the Jülich Research Center and the Institute for Science and Ethics (IWE) at the University of Bonn. Further cooperation partners include Prof. Kerstin Ritter from the Charité in Berlin and Prof. Orsolya Friedrich from the FernUniversität Hagen.