AUA Receives 2.5 Million Euros Grant from EU for Center for Ethics in Public Affairs

YEREVAN — The American University of Armenia (AUA) announced that it has recently received a grant of 2.5 million Euros from Horizon Europe’s European Research Area (ERA) Chair competitive funding to establish a Center for Ethics in Public Affairs (ETICA). The first ERA Chair award in Armenia was granted in November 2022 to Dr. Narine Sarvazyan, Dr. William Frazer Endowed Professor at AUA, whose Chair was hosted at Yerevan’s Orbeli Institute of Physiology.

The Center will be established and directed by ERA Chair Dr. Maria Baghramian, professor of philosophy at University College Dublin and the University of Oslo. ETICA will be based at AUA’s Turpanjian Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), with Assistant Professor Dr. Arshak Balayan acting as principal investigator and deputy director.

The core mission of the grant is to create a comprehensive ecosystem of research, training, and outreach on pressing ethical issues in the public domain in Armenia. The Center will be the first of its kind in the Republic of Armenia and pioneering in its breadth and scope in the region. AUA has committed to continue operating the Center beyond 2030 and to hire a successor to Dr. Baghramian after her five-year term as director.

ETICA is based on four academic pillars: Research & Internationalization, Teaching & Training, Public Outreach, and Structural Reforms in Higher Education. The project’s ultimate goal is to establish ETICA as a national and international hub for excellent research, training, and outreach in ethics in the public and professional arenas. To this end, the Center will hold regular international conferences and workshops, publish peer-reviewed articles, create teaching resources and opportunities in English and Armenian, and engage the Armenian public, including youth, in deliberations on key ethical issues. The project also aims to introduce measures to support researchers at AUA and other Armenian higher education institutions to achieve further success with Horizon Europe funding applications and project management.

“There has never been a better time to emphasize the importance of ethics in Armenia’s public domain,” said AUA President Dr. Bruce Boghosian. “Armenia is courageously forging a new social contract based on democratic principles, while simultaneously tackling very 21st-century problems, including climate change, environmental stewardship, the rise of artificial intelligence, and the abuse of data to proliferate misinformation. To my mind, these efforts, undertaken in the face of so much adversity, exemplify the very best ethical behavior of which humanity is capable. I hope this grant will help build appreciation of this unique moment in history and Armenia’s role at the epicenter of this struggle.”