Abstract

This project aims to enhance, promote the research ethics among Faculty members, researchers, early career researchers (postgraduate students) in the AASTMT. Despite the big efforts that have been conducted by the AASTMT to promote scientific research, there is still big challenges that face them regarding the inadequate awareness and training they get in the field of research ethics. This hinders their ability to conduct research and to publish in top journals and limits their ability to get research grants and funds from various funding organisations. The project starts by a preparation phase which includes an updated needs assessment and benchmarking. This phase mainly involves the examination of the different codes of ethics that are widely accepted among a group of top –ranked universities. The aim of that phase is to get access to the latest ethical research practices that are applied in these research institutions. This phase also involves performing a qualitative study through conducting focus groups and in-depth interviews with faculty members and postgraduate students in various academic disciplines across the AASMT. The aim of this qualitative study is to understand how the participants understand the concept of research ethics and conducting a gap analysis on their understanding of the research ethics and the latest introduced ethical practices in top-ranked universities worldwide. This qualitative study will enable the project’s team to conduct a training needs assessment for faculty staff members, researchers and postgraduate students. The second phase involves developing an institutional road map to promote and enhance the research ethics within the AASMT. This phase involves developing an updated version of the code of ethics for conducting scientific research in the AASTMT as well as a training manual in the area of research ethics. It involves conducting four workshops (2 in Alexandria, 1 in Cairo, 1 in Aswan). The workshops aim at training faculty staff on the latest practices of research ethics. After the workshops, the project aims at launching research ethics committees in all colleges. These committees will be responsible for granting ethical approvals for researchers from the AASTMT before conducting any type of research. These committees will ensure the sustainability of ethical practices in the AASTMT. The final stage involves the dissemination of the project. The dissemination of ethical practices and newly developed code of ethics to AASTMT faculty, researchers and students will be conducted through a number of animation videos that explains the main pillars of ethical research. On the other hand, the dissemination of the project activities will be conducted through a final workshop (dissemination event). Another important output of the project will be an academic paper that will be published in a ranked journal from the data that were collected throughout the project. This project contributes towards several strategies of the AASMT. It enhances the capacity of AASTMT to form partnerships with international universities and research institutions through enhancing the credibility of research output of AASTMT. Also, it contributes towards enhancing the research culture by enhancing the capacity of faculty, researchers and students in practicing the highest standards of research ethics which raises their capacity to publish in top journals and to get funded by local and international organisations.