Impact Statement:

Dr. Emerson’s distinctive analytic approach, ESC (Ethical, Social, Cultural) Thinking, which she co-developed and evolved from her experience delivering the ethics consultation service for the Gates Foundation, is highly effective at identifying and addressing complex moral problems. It has served as the anchor for sound and equitable innovation policy – particularly in the context of high-impact novel health technologies and interventions. In a 12-year period alone, ESC Thinking was embedded across 120+ Gates Foundation-funded global health projects, influencing science innovation policy in over 20 countries, including Canada (per Overton.io). Notably, ESC Thinking was applied in the development of the Foundation’s Global Health Data Access Principles (2011), the open data policy for the world’s largest private global health funder. Led by Dr. Emerson, the policy was designed to catalyze data sharing in global health research, minimize data silos, bolster public-private collaborations, and accelerate research and development (R&D) – all while being responsive to concerns regarding exploitation and inequity experienced by scientists in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs).

In 2014, Dr. Emerson was invited to develop similar policy for Grand Challenges Canada, a federally funded, non-profit impact investor that combines “scientific and technological advances with social and business innovation” and serves as one of Canada’s leading funders of global health research, and whose key domestic program is Indigenous Innovation. Articulating “innovation” as its first goal, the policy optimizes the use of data to translate knowledge into life-saving solutions. More recently, Dr. Emerson collaborated with the New York Climate Exchange to support the development of their data sharing principles, and she is currently developing the data policy for the Fund for Science and Technology, a recently launched philanthropy with a USD$3 billion endowment focused on investments in bioscience, environment, and AI-for-Good initiatives. Dr. Emerson’s ability to scale ESC Thinking in fields outside of her own (such as sustainability and climate science) is a testament to the quality, versatility, and adaptability of her approach to innovation policy, and to the trust placed in her by science leaders seeking guidance on how best to ethically and equitably mobilize novel research for the public good. She is currently co-investigator and ethics lead on a $10 million Genome Canada project seeking to bioengineer cell-cultivated meat at scale to meet dietary protein demands in Canadian and export markets. 

Supporting the responsible development of emerging technologies with the potential to beneficially address intractable public health problems has been a cornerstone of Dr. Emerson’s work. She has secured >$51milIion in grant funding from philanthropy, CIHR, and Genome Canada as co-PI/co-I, and >$28 million as PI. In the Biomedical and Clinical

Sciences, her work is cited 5.19 times more often than average (per Dimensions Analytics) – a remarkable feat for a humanities scholar. She is the leading ethicist and thought-partner for the gene drive research community, considering ESC issues pertaining to gene-drive modified mosquitoes for malaria elimination. Dr. Emerson led the development of two major governance documents that guide research in this field. Principles for Sponsors and Supporters of Gene Drive Research (2017) is a seminal paper published in Science that sets standards for advancing gene drive research. Sixteen public and private global funders from the US, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, India, France, UK, and Canada – including CIHR and Genome Canada – are signatories to the Principles. Dr. Emerson was also a member of the core working group that wrote the WHO Guidance Framework for Testing Genetically Modified Mosquitoes (2021), the singular global guidance document governing gene drive research for public health applications. As author of the Guidance Framework’s chapter on Ethics and Engagement, Dr. Emerson brings ESC Thinking to bear on a global scale for a first-in-class novel technology. Her leadership and global standing in this field led to her appointment to the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) expert panel that produced the report Framing Challenges and Opportunities for Canada: Expert Panel on Regulating Gene-Edited Organisms for Pest Control (2023) – an essential resource for a diverse range of key stakeholders; namely, Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency, policymakers, Indigenous rights-holders and communities, environmental scientists, conservation groups, and those working in the biotechnology sector.  

Moreover, Dr. Emerson has played a key role in developing five WHO guidelines, including all the guidance relating to modern approaches to controlled human infection models (CHIMs; 2020, 2021, 2025), which have recently been introduced in Canada, establishing a CHIM for Bordetella pertussis (Dalhousie, 2022).  She was also involved in developing WHO’s Global Guidance Framework to Harness the Responsible Use of the Life Sciences (2022), specifically pertaining to dual-use and bio-risk research.  

Dr. Emerson is a trusted expert and thought-leader, often the lone ethics expert—and lone Canadian—invited to international policymaking discussions. Her work advances Canada’s profile on the global stage as a key contributor to innovation policy as well as amplifies our distinct Canadian values and interests in innovation governance.

Bio:

Dr. Emerson is Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Founding Director of the Institute on Ethics & Policy for Innovation at McMaster University, where she also holds faculty appointments in the Department of Medicine, and the Mary Heersink School of Global Health and Social Medicine.  

An elected Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, Dr. Emerson is an internationally renowned bioethicist and adviser to UN agencies, governments, philanthropy, and major funders of research and science innovation. Her work identifies and addresses ethics issues and policy gaps on the discovery-to-delivery pathway for health technologies and interventions.