Meet Jasjote Grewal, our new ELSI Helpdesk Coordinator

Jasjote Grewal is a lawyer by training, having qualified as a Solicitor in England and Wales in 2010 with a niche health and social care law firm in London. She holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Warwick and a Masters in Ethics from the University of Strasbourg, for which she was awarded 1st place. Prior to joining BBMRI-ERIC in August 2017, Jasjote worked as a Research Fellow in Biolaw at the Centre for Ethics and Law in the Life Sciences, Hannover. Whilst there she investigated ethical, legal and societal issues (ELSI) in the context of various European and international scientific projects, including biobanking collaborations. Jasjote has received advocacy training at the EURORDIS Expert Patient & Researcher Summer School, and has spent time conducting research at the University of Oxford, as well as the World Health Organization, Geneva. With an interest in exploring further modes of public engagement, Jasjote is also pursuing studies in Art & Science at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna.

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities of the Role

The Common Service ELSI is setting up a federated ELSI Helpdesk for the Member States of BBMRI-ERIC. It is going to be a federated model where ELSI experts from the National Nodes and/or Common Service ELSI will provide customised assistance to scientists when setting up and conducting biobank-related research projects. Requests will be forwarded to the ELSI Helpdesk Coordinator through BBMRI-ERIC’s request tracking system. Depending on the complexity of the questions, the coordinator will answer directly and/or organise the response with the support of one or several National Node/Common Service ELSI experts. Questions requiring input from national ethical and legal regulatory frameworks will be directed to the National Nodes. The Coordinator of the BBMRI-ERIC ELSI Helpdesk is thus responsible for coordinating the federated BBMRI-ERIC Common Service ELSI Helpdesk. He/she organises an ELSI team with representatives from the National Nodes and/or the Common Service ELSI including different kinds of expertise (e.g., law, ethics, and societal issues). He/she works under supervision of the Director of the Common Service ELSI. He/she manages and edits the information on the BBMRI-ERIC website as regards to the ELSI Helpdesk and its tools.

Jasjote will start working at the BBMRI-ERIC Headquarters in Graz, Austria, in August 2017.