The Project goals

ETICA, Center for Ethics in Public Affairs at the American University of Armenia, under the direction of ERA Chair Professor Maria Baghramian, will become a national hub for analysing and researching key ethical issues in the public sphere. ETICA will carry out its activities under the four pillars of Research and Internationalisation, Training and Capacity Building, Outreach and Public Engagement, and Structural Reform, focusing on the following objectives: to internationalise research through a collaborative research project on Trust and Hope in a Time of Poly-crises; to create long-term research and training resources in ethics in public affairs; to offer training opportunities in professional, applied and research ethics; to engage the public in participatory deliberations on key ethical issues; to generate policy briefs informed by its theoretical, empirical and participatory findings; to encourage reform in research management at institutional and sectoral levels; and to assist in strengthening international research funding applications. ETICA will have a lasting impact on the development of research and training in public ethics in a small country with limited resources. By recruiting an excellent team of researchers, the Center will also contribute to revitalizing research and publication in the humanities. Through its training and capacity building activities, ETICA will promote the development of codes of professional conduct in research and governance. By engaging with the general public, in the course of town halls, youth juries and deliberative mini publics, ETICA will strengthen the practice of open and reasoned discourse on issues of public significance in a post-Soviet country steadily moving towards democratisation. ETICA will introduce changes in research management, research ethics and funding application governance that will hasten the integration of AUA, and ultimately the Republic of Armenia, in the EU and the global research community.