The Los Angeles-based Kavli Foundation has announced the launch of two centers aimed at engaging the public in identifying and exploring ethical considerations for and the impacts of scientific discovery.

The Kavli Centers for Ethics, Science, and the Public at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Cambridge will train scientists to be aware of the ethical and societal impacts of scientific discoveries and engage the public in early and intentional discussions about them. The center at UC Berkeley, which will focus initially on the fields of neuroscience, genetics, and artificial intelligence, will be led by AI expert Stuart Russell, along with Nobel Prize laureate Saul Perlmutter, who provided some of the first evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating; Nobel and Kavli Prize laureate Jennifer Doudna, who discovered the gene-editing tool CRISPR; theoretical and moral philosopher Jay Wallace; bioethicist Jodi Halpern; neuroscientist Jack Gallant; and historian and writer Elena Conis.

In collaboration with Wellcome Connecting Science, the center at the University of Cambridge will explore how ethical implications raised by science are tackled in different cultural contexts within the fields of genomics, big data, health research, and emerging technologies. The center will be led by social scientist and genetic counsellor Anna Middleton, with support from sociologist and bioethicist Richard Milne, journalist and broadcaster Catherine Galloway, broadcaster Vivienne Parry, sociology of education expert Susan Robertson, and genomics and public engagement expert Julian Rayner.

“We’re embarking on a democratization of the way we think, collaborate, and communicate about scientific discoveries and their ethical aspects — and ensuring the public is included,” said Kavli Foundation president Cynthia Friend. “It’s long past due for this to happen.”

(Photo credit: GettyImages/Tanawat Thipmontha)