[IN-PERSON/LIVESTREAMED] Plenary Session: Conceptualizing and Assessing the Social Value of Research

This plenary session will be held in-person, livestreamed for the Virtual Meeting, and recorded for on-demand access by attendees registered for PRIMR23 on this day.

Ethicists have engaged in discussions regarding the necessity of adequate social value to justify the potential risks and burdens imposed on its subjects, as well as the investment of public resources research involves. However, several questions arise: who bears the responsibility for assessing social value? Additionally, at what stage of the research design and review process should such assessments be made? Should oversight committees routinely evaluate the social value of a research project while they are conducting risk/benefit assessments? How should social value be conceptualized? What is the relationship of social value to a study’s scientific validity? Is the “importance of the knowledge expected to result” from the research synonymous with its social value? How does thinking about social value affect selection of nonhuman animal models for preclinical work? How is social value assessed in a way that is equitable, rather than exacerbating the marginalization of certain lives and perspectives? This plenary session will delve into these questions, exploring why a clear, agreed-upon framework for assessing the social value of research (in either nonhuman animal or human subjects research space) could be beneficial. Additionally, it will examine the potential role of oversight committees in considering the social value of research.