Ms Ciara Staunton

Dr Ciara Staunton is a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Biomedicine, Eurac Research (Italy). Her research focuses on the governance of new and emerging technologies, in particular stem cell research, genomic research and biobanking, and the use of health data in research. She is a member of a number of international advisory boards providing ethico-legal oversight on these topics and is a member of the National Irish COVID-19 Biobank – Research Ethics Committee (NICB-REC).

Ciara has been in receipt of grants from the Wellcome Trust, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Irish Research Council. She has been involved in the development of policy in Ireland, Bahrain and Africa and in 2021 led the development of the Framework for the Governance of Personal Data for the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator.

From 2010-2013 she was a post-doctorate researcher at the Centre for Medical Ethics and Law, Stellenbosch University. During this time, she co-ordinated the Advancing Research Ethics in Southern Africa (ARESA) Program and was a member of the H3Africa Ethics and Regulatory Issues Working Group. She obtained her PhD from NUI, Galway for her thesis The Regulation of Stem Cell Research in Ireland.

Prior to starting her academic career, Ciara was a Legal Researcher at the Law Reform Commission of Ireland.