Time: September 4, 2026, at 10-15
Place: Tampere University, Linna 5014
Welcome to the autumn’s first TaSTI seminar that focuses on research ethics!
Scholars in social sciences who study health and biomedicine must often navigate complex ethical environments, deal with bureaucratic demands, and simultaneously convince funders of the progress of their projects. Many face these challenges alone, and there is only limited advice and support available for managing ethical clearance processes – even though many social science researchers have encountered, struggled with, and resolved similar issues. In this TaSTI seminar we seek to bring together accrued experiences in a joint reflection.
The morning session (10–12) will feature a roundtable on the intersection of social science and medical research ethics, with experts and experienced researchers. The speakers are university lawyer Juuso Kuusisto, university lecturer Kristina Rolin and Academy Research Fellow Pia Vuolanto.
Following a joint lunch, the afternoon session (13–15) welcomes PhD and post-doctoral researchers to share their experiences of, or current challenges or concerns with, navigating ethical assessment processes in social science research projects concerning health, illness or medicine.
We ask participants to write short papers (1–2 pages) that briefly describe:
- the topic of the research
- the ethical permission/clearance process, with a focus on (unanticipated) challenges
- the consequences of these challenges: how (and whether) they were resolved, and how they affected the researcher’s relationships at the research site and the conduct of the research
- any other aspects they consider significant in relation to ethical processes in social scientific health research
The focus of the seminar is on the formal processes of acquiring ethical permission for research, but we also welcome presentations that address other ethical dimensions of health-related social scientific research. We ask researchers interested in presenting their work to register by sending an email to Katriina Huttunen (katriina.huttunen@tuni.fi) by 21 August. Papers should be submitted by 28 August, after which they will be shared among other presenters. The presenters will also be asked to prepare short (5 minutes) presentations on the papers. Other participants should register to the event by sending an email to Katriina Huttunen (katriina.huttunen@tuni.fi) by 28 August.
Program
10.15-10.25 Welcome and short introductions
10.25-10.50 Juuso Kuusisto: Legal perspectives
10.50-11.15 Kristina Rolin: Ethical review of (non-medical) research with human participants
11.15-11.40 Pia Vuolanto: Ethics process and protocol. Experiences from an EU project
11.40-12.00 Discussion
12-13 LUNCH
13.15-14.45 2-4 short papers/presentations