Scientific discovery is an extensive, expensive enterprise. Discoveries in brain science are no exception, whether the aim is to unravel the nature of human brain specializations or to generate treatments and cures for psychiatric and neurological disorders. In a context of resource scarcity, who should fund the quest for such discoveries? How has the research been funded in the past, and how should it be funded in the future? In this presentation, I explore the desirability of public funding of neuroscience research, even in an era of economic downturns and shrunken budgets.
Jason Scott Robert's research interests are diverse, (he publishes on bioethics, philosophical spects of developmental biology (including stem cell biology) and evolutionary developmental biology, and the philosophy of psychiatry) but his research programme is tied together by the theme of making sense of development in its various manifestations.
In the field of bioethics, Dr Robert is especially interested in the ethical dimensions of the complexity of individual and population health, and also in the ethics of novel biointerventions.
Within the philosophy of biology, Dr Robert has published extensively on philosophical issues in developmental biology, especially at the intersections of genetics and developmental biology, and of developmental biology and evolution. Dr Robert is also interested in conceptual, methodological, and ethical aspects of stem cell biology.
And within the philosophy of psychiatry, Dr Robert works on conceptual and ethical questions about aetiology, classification, and diagnosis of particularly complex disorders (such as schizophrenia). He has an abiding interest in the role of patient narratives in both diagnosis and nosology.
Dr Robert is a member of the Stem Cell Network in Canada. He currently serves on the Institute Advisory Board for the Institute of Population and Public Health, part of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. He also serves on the Advisory Committee on Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues of the Canadian Lifelong Health Initiative. In addition, Dr Robert is one of the co-editors for Philosophy of Biology of the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, and serves on the editorial board of Biological Theory.
