

Dr Simon Kolstoe
Biography
My academic interest is in Research Ethics and Integrity, specifically human participant Medical and Defence research. I work closely with the UK's Health Research Authority (NHS) as a Research Ethics Committee (REC) chair and member of the Community Committee, as well as contributing to projects including Think Ethics, Make it Public, the COVID human challenge REC, and the fast track REC pilot. I also work with other UK government departments including the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA, formerly PHE) as chair of the Research Ethics and Governance Group (REGG), and as chair the Ministry of Defence's Research Ethics Committee (MODREC). I am a trustee of the UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO), and was the UK adapting author of the popular Oxford University Press "Research Integrity" online course.
Prior to moving into Bioethics my background was in Biochemistry (PhD, Southampton 2005) with several years as a post-doctoral research fellow in Professor Sir Mark Pepys' group at UCL Medical School where our work on a small molecule depleter of C-reactive protein was published on the front cover of Nature, and a second project developing drugs targeting the serum protein Transthyretin was patented and licensed to the pharmaceutical company GSK. I joined the University of Portsmouth in 2012 as a Senior Fellow, and then Senior Lecturer, in Biochemistry funded by a BBSRC new investigators award. Following further degrees in Philosophy (BA, Open) and Research Ethics (MA, Keele), I moved to a Senior Lectureship in Evidence Based Healthcare in 2017, and then Reader/Associate Professor in Bioethics as of 2021.
Research interests
- Research Ethics, Integrity and Governance
- Ethics committee review: quality and consistency
- Defence and dual use research
- Human Challenge Trials
- Research Waste
- Research Culture
Research outputs
2025
A decision-making model for public health authorities in circumstances of potentially high public risk
Dalal, F. N., Kolstoe, S. E., Chow, Y. Y., Dashore, D., Lipman, M., Lillie, P., Padfield, S., Gajraj, R., McGrath, C., Fowler, T., Ibbotson, S. L.
18 May 2025, In: Journal of Public Health Medicine
Research output: Article
Regulatory workshop on standardisation of clinical procedures, endpoints and data robustness of human challenge studies - a stakeholder meeting report
Meln, I., Cnossen, V., Corti, N., Andeweg, A., Baay, M., Chiu, C., Coia, J., Cornely, O., Cox, R. J., Dasyam, D., De Keersmaecker, S. C. J., Deming, M., Waldock, J., Engelhardt, O. G., Guo, M., Haj-Ali Saflo, O.,
1 May 2025, In: Biologicals. 90, 10p., 101818
Research output: Article
Scientists should try to repeat more studies, but not those looking for a link between vaccines with autism
Kolstoe, S.
8 Apr 2025, In: The Conversation
Research output: Article
Integrating human augmentation in the defence sphere: an exploratory mixed-methods study on ethical principles
Miron, M., Sattler, S., Whetham, D., Auzanneau, M., Kolstoe, S. E.
1 Apr 2025, In: Neuroethics. 18, 1, 20p., 23
Research output: Article
Is my project research?: Determining which projects require review by a research ethics committee
Kolstoe, S. E., Sözüdoğru, E., Messer, J., Coates, E., Tobin, E.
11 Feb 2025, In: Accountability in Research: Policies and Quality Assurance, 21p.
Research output: Article
2024
Destigmatise efforts to uphold research integrity
Kolstoe, S., Neve, S.
20 Dec 2024, In: Research Professional
Research output: Article
The trinity of good research: distinguishing between research integrity, ethics, and governance
Kolstoe, S. E., Pugh, J.
1 Dec 2024, In: Accountability in Research: Policies and Quality Assurance. 31, 8, p. 1222-1241, 20p.
Research output: Article
Reshaping consent so we might improve participant choice (III) – How is the research participant’s understanding currently checked and how might we improve this process?
Davies, H., Kolstoe, S., Lockett, A.
1 Jul 2024, In: Research Ethics. 20, 3, p. 604-612, 9p.
Research output: Article
AI could transform ethics committees
Kolstoe, S.
29 Feb 2024, In: The Conversation
Research output: Article
2023
Reshaping consent so we might improve participant choice (II) – helping people decide
Davies, H., Munday, R., O’Reilly, M., Gilmour Hamilton, C., Ardahan, A., Kolstoe, S. E., Gillies, K.
1 Oct 2023, In: Research Ethics. 19, 4, p. 466-473
Research output: Article