CAE

The W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics (the Centre) is an interdisciplinary research unit within the College for Interdisciplinary Studies, at the University of British Columbia. The Centre was created in 1993 with endowments by W. Maurice Young (LLD) and the Bentall Foundation. The Centre’s affairs are managed by a Coordinating Committee representing faculty, students and research associates, chaired by the Director of the Centre.

The Centre’s approach to other UBC academic and research units follows from our position as an interdisciplinary academic centre, and from our mission to advance the research agenda of applied ethics. A number of departments and units -- including Animal Welfare, the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability, Nursing and Philosophy -- have contributed outstanding students to the Centre, while our research and teaching/supervision now ties us to Medical Genetics, Law, Political Science, Journalism, Forestry, Botany and Computing Sciences. These relationships and the products of our collaborations place the Centre at the forefront of the movement to create “transdisciplinary” research.

The mission of the Centre is to advance the research agenda of applied ethics, conceived as the application of normative theory and social science to core issues in science and technology ethics and policy, organizational ethics, animal welfare and the environment, and research ethics.

The Centre also trains academics in the theories and methods of ethics, ensuring they have a sound knowledge of their subject matter (e.g., commerce, environmental science, medicine), normative theories and social science. Centre faculty and associates also provide consulting for public, private and non-profit organizations. Central to the Centre’s mission is a lively, supportive, and critical interdisciplinary research and teaching environment.

The Centre aims to conduct world-class research in applied ethics and to educate the next generation of applied ethics researchers and practitioners. It has, in part, met the challenges of working in this field by successfully seeking funding for several major research programs and a growing number of graduate and post-doctoral students.

The creation and establishment of the W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics is due to the generosity and leadership of W. Maurice and Mary Margaret Young.  It was their vision and initial endowment for the W. Maurice Young Chair of Applied Ethics that led to the Centre’s foundation in 1992.  The Youngs also endowed the Centre’s Chair in Business Ethics, the Mary Maurice Young Professorship in Applied Ethics, Maurice Young Visiting Lecturers Program and the Centre’s Emerging Opportunities fund .

The following links take you to a number of innovative web-based surveys developed by researchers at the University of British Columbia. The purpose of the surveys is to facilitate well-informed discussion about complex issues related to ethics (including animal welfare) and scientific and technological developments. We look forward to receiving Your Views!