Ethics platform

The “Ecole Supérieure d’Ethique des Sciences” (Higher School of Science Ethics) of the “Institut Catholique de Toulouse” (Catholic Institute of Toulouse) is in charge of the TWB ethics patform. The emergence of new disciplines, such as systems biology and synthetic biology, have made it possible to alter the living, which in turn raises in-depth questions on not only the very concept of “living” but also the impact of biotechnology on our society and its acceptation of these changes.

All ethical and sustainable development issues raised by the projects hosted at TWB are managed by this platform in two complementary stages:

• A conceptual study is conducted upstream to better situate biotechnologies, based on paradigms such as “natural/artificial” and “life/living”.
• Long-term analysis of social impact and social acceptability is proposed for all pre-competitive research projects developed by TWB.

Work is conducted in the TWB laboratories themselves in collaboration with all the researchers involved in the project.

Services are also offered on this platform.

Manager: Vincent GREGOIRE-DELORY (e-mail: vgd@ict-toulouse.fr)