Dr Doug Wassenaar

Biography

Dr Wassenaar is the director of SARETI – the South African Research Ethics Training Initiative, which is a NIH/Fogarty-funded research ethics training programme. SARETI is a collaborative multidisciplinary research ethics programme between the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the University of Pretoria (see the SARETI website). SARETI aims to build capacity in Africa for the ethical review of research with human participants by offering Master's scholarships and shorter funded fellowships for suitably qualified stakeholders in research and ethical review. He is the coordinator of the WHO-UNAIDS sponsored African AIDS Vaccine Programme's (AAVP) Ethics Law and Human Rights (ELH) Working Group, which aims to coordinate African partners working towards an ethical-legal support framework for HIV vaccine trials in Africa. He is also a consultant to the HIV AIDS Vaccines Ethics Group (HAVEG) of the South African AIDS Vaccines Initiative (SAAVI) and a consultant in research ethics to various African research and ethics programmes.

He is a senior lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, has published in research ethics and his professional fields of interest (suicidology and eating disorders), and has presented international papers and workshops on aspects of research ethics.