ethics in ict project proposals efthimios tambouris associate professor, university of macedonia,...

Ethics in ICT Project Proposals

Efthimios TambourisAssociate Professor, University of Macedonia, [email protected]

Idealist 2018 Webinar on 'Ethics in ICT Project Proposals'Webinar, 12 January 2016

E. Tambouris http://egov.it.uom.gr/wiki 2

Ethics Review Experience• Assistant professor at the Applied Informatics dpt, University of Macedonia,

Thessaloniki, Greece • ICT academic background • Involved in Ethics Reviews for the last decade• Involved in “remote” (meaning online, i.e. through Internet) reviews and also

“central” (meaning in Brussels through physical meetings) reviews • Reviewed proposals from many different areas and instruments, such as

eHealth, Food-bio, ICT, People, European Research Council grants etc.

• Disclaimer: This presentation reflects personal opinions based on experience and is not an official EU position, thus no “guarantee” is provided!



Content1. Ethics areas and proposals 2. Ethics issues in most ICT research 3. Ethics issues in Contemporary ICT research areas 4. Common Mistakes in research proposals 5. (Some) Practical Advice 6. Conclusions


E. Tambouris http://egov.it.uom.gr/wiki

Ethics areas and relevance to ICT proposals• Human embryos/foetus - Low• Humans - High• Human cells/tissues - Low• Protection of personal data - High• Animals - Low• Non EU countries - Medium • Environmental protection and safety - Low • Dual use - Medium• Misuse - Medium

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Research proposals and ethics • Ethics reviewers are asked to evaluate whether proposals raise ethics issues

in terms of: – Their objectives, i.e. are the objectives of the research benign? – Their methodology, i.e. are the methods used to reach these objectives

ethical? – Their impact, i.e. are there ethics consideration with regards to the

impact of the project’s results once these are achieved?

• Ethics issues related to the methodology are the most common • In general, these are also the easiest to address • However, some research (particularly in ICT) may raise ethics issues related

to their objectives (e.g. developing artificial intelligence and consciousness), or impact (e.g. profiling the health of people based on big data)

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How ethics relates to everything else? Ethical position • This figure has been proposed for organisations • It can be also useful for researchers!• ICT researchers are usually driven by what can be done technically!

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Source: http://www.ibmbigdatahub.com/sites/default/files/whitepapers_reports_file/TCG%20Study%20Report%20-%20Ethics%20for%20BD%26A.pdf



ICT Proposals and System Development• ICT proposals involve software development • Software development follows a software engineering method, e.g.

waterfall model, Unified Process, Scrum etc. • These methods include a number of steps, e.g.

– User requirements elicitation – System specification – System Analysis and Design – System Development and Testing, etc.

• Also, in most projects trials are performed aiming to evaluate the system

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Ethics in ICT Proposals• Traditionally, ICT proposals may involve human participants in two major

software engineering activities: • Users Requirements Elicitation. Here, potential users outside the

consortium may be consulted via questionnaires, interviews, surveys etc. • Trials and evaluation. Here, humans outside the consortium are asked to

use the developed system and provide their views on it.

• These activities are present in almost all ICT proposals.

• Thus, the applicants should investigate whether ethics issues related to humans and data protection are applicable to their proposal, starting from the two above-mentioned activities.

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Trials and Evaluation• Trials in ICT proposals can be in areas that are inherently ethics-

challenging • For example, some proposals include a use case in eHealth or eLearning

to showcase their systems • Examples:

– Combining clinical data from various hospitals to illustrate a new semantic web system

• This project raises issues related to data protection (health data are sensitive personal data according to EU legislation)

– Including video cameras in classrooms as part of a Learning Analytics project to decrease pupils drop out rates

• This project raises issues related to tracking people and the participation of children in research

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Contemporary ICT Research Areas• Many ICT research involves software and system development in new areas • Some of these areas raise ethics issues related to their methodologies but also

objectives and/or impact • Some example areas follow:

– Big data including Internet of Things• Possible ethics issues: informed consent, data protection, privacy, “write to

forget” etc. – Cloud computing

• Possible ethics issues: data protection– Robotics

• Possible ethics issues: philosophical ethics issues e.g. as to what makes us human

– Artificial Intelligence • Possible ethics issues: philosophical ethics issues e.g. as to what makes us

human

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Example area: Big data and ethics • Why are researchers interested in digital data?

– Digital data can be easily collected or even harvested – Digital data can be easily combined with other data – Digital data can be easily stored even without explicit location

knowledge (e.g. cloud storage)– Digital data can be easily and quickly transferred – Digital data can be easily re-used – Digital data can be processed in

• traditional ways but also in • new (even unexpected or unpredicted) ways • E.g. using data mining, data linkage etc.

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Example area: Big data and ethics • Why is this relevant to ethics?

– Harvesting data from SM raises issues of informed consent – Big data raise issues of identifiability – …and at the same time they raise problems in authenticating online

identities – Data linkage presents risks to privacy and confidentiality – There are emerging and pressing issues of ensuring data security,

privacy and governance particularly in cross-border research (like most EU-funded research)

– Research objectives can be ethically challenging, e.g. price discrimination, user profiling, public surveillance etc.

– Many Social Media (facebook, tweeter) are US-based

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Source: Carlton Connect Initiative, 2015, Guidelines for the Ethical Use of Digital Data in Human Research, http://carltonconnect.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Ethical-Use-of-Digital-Data.pdf



Example area: Cloud Computing • With cloud computing data can be stored anywhere • Data can also be transferred between locations transparently based on

availability etc. • This “flexibility” poses ethics challenges relevant to data protection,

accountability etc. E.g. – Which legislation is applicable?

• Many cloud providers are based outside the EU

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Example: The BRAIN project • BRAIN is 10-year, 1 B€ FET flagship aiming to investigate the human brain

using amongst others massively parallel processing • This project raises ethics issues related to the

– Objectives: e.g. is it ethical to “simulate” a part of the human brain? – Methods: e.g. the brain of human participants will be scanned; mice

models will be employed etc. – Impact: e.g. what will be the impact if we manage to simulate the

whole brain?

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How to approach data protection ethics?

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Image from http://www.lagiostradeidiritti.org/ Image from https://hutchinson-page.wikispaces.com/A+Study+of+Archetypes

As a lawyer As a scientist

As yourself As someone elseImage from http://thomaspmbarnett.com/globlogization/tag/us-military

Identify, understand, comply with current

legislation

Review scientific literature to get a better understanding on state-of-the-art ethics issues

Would you mind if your own data were

handled like that?

Do you think someone else would mind if his/her data

were handled like that?



Common Mistakes1. Ethical issues are neglected altogether. Two cases:

1. “Trivial” ethical issues are not identified (mainly related to the methodology)

2. Complex ethical issues are not identified (mainly related to the objectives and/or impact)

2. Ethical issues are acknowledged but are not handled properly in the Ethics section.

3. Ethical issues are acknowledged and handled properly in the Ethics section but nowhere else in the Description of Work (e.g. Work Packages, Project Management etc)

• “Handling” includes: 1. Actual work on ethical issues 2. Properly managing this work



(Some) Practical Advice1. Determine whether your work (in terms of objectives, methodology,

impact) raises ethics issues. 2. Get informed on relevant national and international ethics requirements,

laws, regulations, good practices etc. 3. Prepare a plan to handle ethics issues. 4. Integrate this plan in your Description of Work. 5. If needed, properly manage work on ethics issues.



1. Identify possible Ethics Issues• Analyse your proposal in terms of its:

– Objectives. The fact that a system can be technically developed does not necessarily mean that it is a good idea to develop it!

– Methodology. Does your research methods involve the participation of humans (e.g. during requirements elicitation and/or trials and evaluation) or animals? Will the developed system process personal data or observe or track people?

– Impact. Does your system have the potential for dual use or misuse?

• Common mistake: ethical issues are neglected all together, specifically in research areas where there is no relevant tradition e.g. ICT



1. Identify possible Ethics Issues• Researchers preparing a proposal should:

– See proposal guidelines, e.g. – http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/grants_manual/hi/

ethics/ethics-eit_en.pdf and

– http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/call_ptef/pt/h2020-call-pt-ria-ia_en.pdf#page=27

– Perform the self-assessment exercise, e.g. – http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/doc/call/h2020/h2020-msca

-itn-2015/1620147-h2020_-_guidance_ethics_self_assess_en.pdf – See EU guidelines on ethics issues – Seek advice from your institution

• Common mistake: ethics issues are neglected all together, specifically in research areas where there is no relevant tradition e.g. ICT

http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/grants_manual/hi/ethics/ethics-eit_en.pdf


http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/call_ptef/pt/h2020-call-pt-ria-ia_en.pdf#page=27

http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/call_ptef/pt/h2020-call-pt-ria-ia_en.pdf#page=27





Ethics Table: Humans

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Ethics Table: Personal Data, Dual Use and Misuse

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2. Get Informed on Relevant Requirements• Get informed on relevant national, EU and international ethics

requirements, laws, regulations etc. E.g. – Data protection directive 1995/46 and relevant national legislation – Directive on privacy and electronic communications 2002/58 and

relevant national legislation • If developing countries are involved in the proposal, compliance to EU

standards is required. • Start with your organisation • Check support from the EU

• This should be reported in the Ethics section of your proposal.

• Common mistake: relevant requirements are not presented or are presented only at the EU level and not national



3. Prepare a Plan • Prepare a plan to handle ethics issues. • The plan is obviously related to the nature of ethics issues involved.• Obtain permissions from local or national authorities, if needed and if

possible before proposal.

• This should be outlined in the Ethics section of your proposal.

• Common mistake: Ethics issues are properly identified and relevant regulations are listed but there is no adequate evident that the consortium will handle them properly. In certain cases, it is evident that the consortium is very experienced in handling ethics issues in the past but did not properly documented the needed work.



4. Integrate Plan in DoW• Integrate this plan in your Description of Work. • The relevant work should be clearly stated in the Work Packages etc.• If permissions are needed, plan your time accordingly.

• This should be presented in the main body of the proposal (besides the Ethics section).

• Common mistake: handling ethics issues is reported properly in the Ethics section of the proposal but is not evident whether and where this work would be carried out when someone reads Work Package descriptions.



5. Manage Ethics Issues • If needed, manage properly work on ethics issues. • This should be outlined in the Ethics Issues section but also integrated in

your Description of Work (e.g. in description of Work Packages, Project Management etc).

• Decide whether you need to: – Manage Ethics Issues at the Task and/or Work Package – Have a Specific Task of Work Package on ethics– Have an (internal or external) ethics expert in the Steering Committee

or Board

• Common mistake: The proposal has properly identified and handled serious ethics issues but experts responsible for ethics issues are not high enough in the management hierarchy



Content1. Ethics areas and proposals 2. Ethics issues in “Traditional” ICT research 3. Ethics issues in Contemporary ICT research areas 4. Common Mistakes in research proposals 5. (Some) Practical Advice 6. Conclusions



Conclusions • Traditionally ethics and ICT research were disjoint fields • This is no longer the case! • Ethics issues can be related to objectives, methodology and impact • System development may raise issues related to data protection • Research is new areas (big data, IoT, cloud, robotics, AI etc) may also raise

issues related to objectives and/or impact • Sometimes building something is technologically interesting but might not

actually be a good idea



Conclusions • In most cases, ethics issues can be easily handled by a consortium• In some cases, it is evident that a consortium has the relevant expertise

but has not devoted proper resources for the documentation • This presentation aimed to present some guidelines for the most

straightforward cases • In certain cases however, ethics issues are not trivial and require much

more attention; in this cases, advice from an ethics expert on the specific field might be needed

• Note: all views expressed in this presentation are based on personal experience; they are not the result of an academic investigation or other systematic method



Thank you very much for your attention!!

ethics in ict project proposals efthimios tambouris associate professor, university of macedonia,...

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