Mission Statement
The mission of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics is to conduct advanced scholarship on the ethics of clinical practice, biomedical science, and public health, both locally and globally, and to engage students, trainees, the public, and policy-makers in serious discourse about these issues. We are committed to the following:
- Conducting cutting-edge, multidisciplinary research.
- Training the next generation of leaders in bioethics.
- Helping to prepare students and trainees for the ethical challenges of professional and civic life.
- Informing the public about bioethical issues.
- Contributing to more ethical public policies and practices.
Established in 1995, the Berman Institute is now one of the largest centers of its kind in the world. Today, the Berman Institute consists of more than 30 core and affiliated faculty from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, School of Nursing, Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. Faculty work collaboratively on scholarship and teaching in the Institute’s five areas of focus:
- Biomedical research and discovery
- Ethics of clinical practice
- Public health ethics and health policy
- Research ethics
- Global health ethics and research
The Berman Institute mentors trainees through the Ph.D. concentration in bioethics and health policy, the Hecht-Levi Fellowship program, the Johns Hopkins-Fogarty African Bioethics Training Program; the Arts and Sciences minor in bioethics; the bioethics certificate, and various summer and winter intensive courses in bioethics. The Institute also provides policy advice for government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and private sector organizations.
Funding for the Berman Institute comes from public research grants, private foundations, and philanthropic contributions.
