The University is aware of an article published yesterday by The Overseen about the ethical approval and funding of Whose view is it? Consent, bystanders and the ethics of seeing through a device, the research project at the Centre for the Ethics of Perception whose report, Bystanders, was published in December.
The project was approved by the Arts and Humanities Research Ethics Committee in 2022 (reference AHREC/2022/117), and each amendment to it was approved before it took effect. The project had ethical approval at every stage.
The University publishes the minutes of its three research ethics committees with confidential business removed. Reserved business is recorded in a confidential minute, in line with each committee’s terms of reference, and confidential minutes are not published. The University does not comment on their contents.
The device tests reported in Bystanders were staged at the Chiba Centre for Visual Science with volunteers who gave their written consent. The data from those tests is held by the Centre.
The project was funded by a research grant from the Kiroshi Foundation, which the University announced when it was awarded. Under the grant agreement, the Foundation could review publications before submission for confidential information belonging to it or to a connected company. It could not change the findings.
The University stands by the report and by the researchers who wrote it.
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