Skip to main content
University College London logo
Photo of Prof Sarah Edwards

Prof

Sarah Edwards

Professor of Bioethics

STEaPP

  • Professor of Bioethics
    STEaPP
  • University College London, 22 Gordon Square, 3.3, London, United Kingdom

BIO

Professor Edwards's body of work has helped inform the academic and policy agendas in the field of research ethics and law, particularly within a health context. Her main achievements have often come from identifying new issues in the ethics of health research and forecasting changing circumstances, then studying these issues from different disciplinary perspectives in philosophy and social sciences.

Her academic work has been widely adopted by policymakers locally, nationally and internationally. For example, her work on the limits to individual consent in the context of clinical trials was used as the focus of an impact case study for the UCL Philosophy Unit’s submission for the 2014 REF and was rated ‘outstanding in terms of its reach and significance’ (4*). More recently, her work on ethics and study design of clinical research during outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases formed the basis of another impact case study, again scoring 4* within UCL Philosophy Unit’s submission, for the 2021 Research Excellence Framework.

She is the current chair of the UCL Research Ethics Committee and is a member of several international working groups on the ethics of research especially in low income settings

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON APPOINTMENTS

  • Professor of Bioethics
    University College London, STEaPP

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

  • Professor of Bioethics
    University College London, Science and Technology Studies, London, United Kingdom1 Oct 2018 - 31 Dec 2021
  • Senior Lecturer in Research Ethics and Governance
    University College London, London, United Kingdom1 Oct 2008 - 30 Sep 2018
  • Senior Lecturer in Research Ethics and Governance
    University College London NHS Hospitals Foundation Trust, London, UK1 Sep 2005 - 30 Sep 2008
  • Lecturer in Ethics in Medicine
    University of Bristol, Community Medicine, Bristol, United Kingdom1 Sep 2000 - 31 Aug 2005
  • Research Fellow
    University of Birmingham, {Public Health and Epidemiology, Birmingham, United Kingdom1 Sep 1995 - 31 Aug 2000

DEGREES

  • Doctor of Philosophy
    University of Bristol2005
  • Master of Arts
    University of Leeds1995
  • Bachelor of Science
    University of York1992

FIELDS OF RESEARCH