On 1st November 2022, the ERC PatentsInHumans project led by Prof Aisling McMahon, (School of Law and Criminology, Maynooth University) commenced. The five-year interdisciplinary project is funded by a European Research Council Starting Grant and will involve a team of researchers who will focus on developing a comprehensive understanding of the bioethical issues posed by patents and how they are used over technologies related to the human body (such as, medicines, elements of medical devices, etc). The project will interrogate to what extent such bioethical implications are considered if at all, within European patent decision-making for these technologies. Ultimately, a key project aim is to reimagine European patent decision-making to further embed bioethical considerations in the patent decision-making systems for technologies related to the human body.
You can learn more about the project by watching this short video here.
