The acronyms ELSI (in the United States) and ELSA (in Europe) refer to research activities that anticipate and address ''ethical, legal and social implications'' (ELSI) or ''aspects'' (ELSA) of emerging sciences, notably genomics and nanotechnology. ELSI was conceived in 1988 when James Watson, at the press conference announcing his appointment as director of the Human Genome Project (HGP), suddenly and somewhat unexpectedly declared that the ethical and social implications of genomics warranted a special effort and should be directly funded by the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

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Various ELSI or ELSA programs have been developed, in Canada, Europe and the Far East. Overview: # U.S.A.: Ethical, ....Legal and Social Implications (ELSI) (funding agency: NIH, 1990) # Canada: Genomics-related Ethical, Environmental, Economic, Legal and Social Aspects (GE3LS) (funding agency:

Genome Canada Genome Canada is a non-profit organization that aims to use genomics-based technologies to improve the lives of Canadians. It is funded by the Government of Canada. Genome Canada provides large-scale investments that develop new technologies, conne ...

, 2000) # South-Korea: Ethical, Legal and Social Implications (ELSI) (funding: Government of South-Korea, 2001) # United Kingdom: ESRC Genomics Network (EGN), including: Cesagen, Innogen, Egenis, Genomics Forum (funding agency: ESRC 2002) # Netherlands: Centre for Society and the Life Sciences (CSG) (funding agency: Netherlands Genomics Initiative, 2002) # Norway: ELSA Program (funding agency: Research Council of Norway, 2002) # Germany, Austria, Finland: ELSAGEN Transnational Research Programme (funding agencies: GEN-AU, FFG, DFG, Academy of Finland, 2008)

Features

At least four features seem typical for an ELSA approach, namely: # proximity (closeness to or embedding in large-scale scientific programs); # early anticipation (of societal issues and potential controversies); # interactivity (encouraging stakeholders and publics to assume an active role in co-designing research agendas); # interdisciplinarity (bridging boundaries between research communities such as for instance

bioethics Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health (primarily focused on the human, but also increasingly includes animal ethics), including those emerging from advances in biology, m ...

and STS).

Reception

The ELSA approach has been widely endorsed by academics studying the societal impact of science and technology, but also criticized. Michael Yesley, responsible for the US Department of Energy (DOE) part of the ELSI programme, claims that the ELSI Program was in fact a discourse of justification, selecting topics of ethics research that will facilitate rather than challenge the advance of genetic technology. In other words, ELSA genomics as the handmaiden of genomics research. In Europe, in the context of the Horizon 2020 program, ELSA-style research is now usually framed as

Responsible Research and Innovation Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) is a term used by the European Union's Framework Programmes to describe scientific research and technological development processes that take into account effects and potential impacts on the environment an ...

.Zwart H., Landeweerd L., Van Rooij A. (2014). Adapt or perish? Assessing the recent shift in the European research funding arena from ‘ELSA’ to ‘RRI’. Life Sciences, Society and Policy. 10:11 (14 May 2014). doi:10.1186/s40504-014-0011-x. Examples of academic journals open to publishing ELSA research results are ''New Genetics and Society'' (Taylor and Francis) and '' Life Sciences, Society and Policy'' (SpringerOpen).

References

{{Reflist Social responsibility Bioethics * Futures studies Science in society Ethics