SSE Riga Associate Professor Xavier Landes explores the ethics of mission-driven solar geoengineering research
The new study examines how mission-driven research changes the responsibilities of researchers, particularly in relation to the stakeholders whose interests such research is intended to serve.
Together with Timothy Daly (Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences Argentina/Sorbonne University), Associate Professor Xavier Landes published an article titled “Understanding ‘Mission-Driven Research’ in Solar Geoengineering as a Moral Relationship.”
In the article, Daly and Landes argue that researchers who engage in mission-driven research (MDR) are subject to fiduciary duties to serve the interests of relevant stakeholders.
As XavierLandes explains:
“In the solar radiation modification literature, MDR (mission-driven research) has been introduced in contrast to curiosity-driven or investigator-driven approaches. The idea behind it is that research into solar geoengineering should be focused on missions. In our article, we raise several questions about who should determine such missions and how. More specifically, we make the claim that researchers are then subject to (quasi-) fiduciary duties.”
Link to the publication (in English): https://www.