Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics

What Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics does

The Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, established in 1995 and headquartered in Deering Hall on the Johns Hopkins East Baltimore Medical Campus, is a non-profit academic research and education institute operating as an integral unit of Johns Hopkins University. The Institute's functional focus is interdisciplinary bioethics scholarship spanning clinical ethics, public health ethics, research ethics, science ethics, and global health ethics, delivered through approximately 47 core and affiliated faculty holding joint appointments across the Johns Hopkins schools of Medicine, Nursing, Public Health, Arts and Sciences, and Advanced International Studies.

Its core product set comprises graduate and postdoctoral education (Master of Bioethics, PhD in Bioethics and Health Policy, Hecht-Levi and GLIDE postdoctoral fellowships, undergraduate minor, and certificate program), research and consulting services (Research Ethics Consultation Service, Fogarty African Bioethics Training Program, Global Food Ethics and Policy Program, Oxford-JHU GLIDE collaborative), and public-facing media produced through the Dracopoulos-Bloomberg iDeas Lab (the award-winning playing god? podcast, Feels Like Home film, and online courses such as Vision of Hope and the Coursera Synbio/Bioethics course). Reach spans more than 20 countries.

The Institute's revenue model is non-tuition-and-grant hybrid: tuition from degree programs (with scholarships averaging 20% of cost), multi-year research grants from NIH Fogarty and foundations including Wellcome Trust and Stavros Niarchos Foundation, and philanthropic contributions that aggregated $52 million through the Rising to the Challenge Campaign. Distribution flows through Johns Hopkins admissions channels, partner institutions in Africa, Malaysia, and Oxford, and direct public engagement via seminars, newsletters, and the iDeas Lab media portfolio.

Name

Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics

Legal name

Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics

Website

https://bioethics.jhu.edu

Company type

Private

Founded year

1995

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

The Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics is a non-profit academic institute within Johns Hopkins University that delivers interdisciplinary bioethics education (MBE, PhD, fellowships), research, and public engagement for graduate students, clinicians, policymakers, and global health partners across more than 20 countries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Academic Bioethics Research and Education

NAICS

Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology) (541715), Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714), Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations (813)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200), Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Biomedical Sciences & Medical Research Institutes (University-Based) (EDAHAGAI)

akta.pro secondary industries

Clinical Research Ethics & Human Subjects Protection Authorities (IRB/REC Oversight) (HLAJACAG), Medical, Clinical & Biomedical Scholarly Publishing (EDAGAFAB), Life Sciences & Biotechnology Congresses (THAHAJAB)

Keywords

• Bioethics research
• Bioethics education
• Global health ethics
• Clinical ethics consultation
• Public health policy

Headquarters

HQ city

Baltimore

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Educational Programs and Tuition: Revenue from tuition for Master of Bioethics (MBE), PhD programs, postdoctoral fellowships, certificate programs, and undergraduate minor. The institute offers scholarships averaging 20% of tuition cost.
2. Research Grants: Funding from public research grants including NIH Fogarty International Center, private foundations, and government agencies for bioethics research, training programs, and global health ethics initiatives.
3. Philanthropic Contributions: Private donations, major gifts, endowment gifts, planned giving, and campaign contributions. The Rising to the Challenge Campaign received $52 million in total philanthropic support.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

The Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics is a non-profit academic institute that conducts interdisciplinary bioethics scholarship, offers degree and fellowship programs (MBE, PhD, postdoctoral, undergraduate minor, certificate), provides research ethics consultation to investigators, and engages the public through podcasts, films, and global health ethics capacity-building programs.

Product overview

The Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics is a world-leading academic center dedicated to achieving more ethical practices and policies relevant to human health and well-being. The Institute operates as a unified platform offering interdisciplinary bioethics education, research, and public engagement. Its core products include educational programs (the Master of Bioethics degree, PhD in Bioethics and Health Policy, postdoctoral fellowships including the Hecht-Levi and GLIDE programs, an undergraduate minor, and a certificate program), research initiatives (the Dracopoulos-Bloomberg iDeas Lab creative studio, Research Ethics Consultation Service, Fogarty African Bioethics Training Program, and the Global Food Ethics and Policy Program), and public-facing media products (the award-winning 'playing god?' podcast, the Feels Like Home film, and online learning modules like Vision of Hope). These offerings work together to advance scholarship, train the next generation of bioethics leaders, and engage the public in bioethics discourse.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• The Dracopoulos-Bloomberg iDeas Lab: A creative studio and incubator for world class stories at the intersection of science, ethics, medicine and public health.
• playing god? Podcast

Products and services

• Master of Bioethics (MBE)

Quantifiable outcome

• 98 Fellows educated launching careers in bioethics scholarship
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• NIH Fogarty International CentercoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2000Fogarty African Bioethics Training Program (FABTP) is a bioethics capacity development program for institutions within Africa, directed by Nancy Kass. The program funds individual-level training, mentorship, and strategic planning to enhance research ethics systems at partner institutions in sub-Saharan Africa.
• African Bioethics Consortium (ABC)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNetwork of US and African institutions working collaboratively to enhance institutional capacities in international research ethics. Member institutions include Johns Hopkins Berman Institute, Bloomberg School of Public Health, University of Zambia, Makerere University, and University of Botswana.
• University of MalayacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerJohns Hopkins University-University of Malaya Partnership aims to establish Master of Research Ethics Studies (MORES) program, the first of its kind in Malaysia. Creates regional hub for research ethics training sensitive to diverse cultural contexts of Southeast Asia.
• The Hinxton GroupminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational consortium of researchers, ethicists, and experts from 14 countries exploring ethical and policy challenges of transnational scientific collaboration in embryo research and stem cell science. Published legal and ethical guidelines to address conflicting international laws.
• Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on Global Food Ethics and Policy Program addressing critical issues of under- and over-nutrition, diet-related diseases, poverty, inequity, and environmental degradation across the food system.
• Bloomberg Philanthropies - Data for Health InitiativecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBloomberg Data for Health Initiative seeks to improve vital registration systems and expand non-communicable disease surveillance in low-and middle-income countries. Component addresses ethical, legal, and societal issues of mobile phone surveys, with partners in Colombia and Uganda.
• Oxford University Ethox CentrecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerJoint Global Infectious Disease Ethics (GLIDE) Collaborative established with support from Wellcome Trust. Partnership includes joint postdoctoral fellowship training opportunity with residency at both institutions.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves10 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• The Hastings Center: Independent, nonprofit bioethics research institute founded in 1969 — the founding organization of the bioethics field and the most direct comparison to the Berman Institute's scholarship, policy, and public-engagement mission. Several Berman faculty are elected Hastings Fellows.
• University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics: Interdisciplinary bioethics center at Penn offering graduate education and postdoctoral training. Comparable scale and academic-medical campus positioning to the Berman Institute.
• Oxford University Ethox Centre: Oxford's bioethics research centre and joint partner with the Berman Institute in the Wellcome-funded GLIDE collaborative. Direct peer on global health/infectious disease ethics research and joint postdoctoral training.
• NYU Langone Division of Medical Ethics: University-based medical ethics unit with graduate education, clinical ethics consultation, and policy work — highly comparable to the Berman Institute's clinical-ethics and research-ethics service lines.
• Georgetown University Kennedy Institute of Ethics: University-based bioethics institute at Georgetown, home to the Bioethics Research Library and a major scholarly publisher in the field (including the Encyclopedia of Bioethics). Directly comparable on education, research, and library/scholarly publishing.
• Case Western Reserve University Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities: Mid-sized university bioethics center offering graduate certificates, MA, and PhD pathways. Comparable in academic-program and humanities-medicine positioning, though smaller in scale.
• Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics (SCBE): Stanford Medical School's bioethics center operating graduate programs (MS, PhD tracks), postdoctoral training, and policy-engaged research. Closely comparable in programmatic structure and academic-medical anchoring.
• University of Minnesota Center for Bioethics: University-based bioethics center where Director Jeffrey Kahn previously led before joining JHU — directly comparable graduate and research programs, and a known feeder/talent competitor for faculty and students.
• Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics: University-based bioethics center offering graduate education, postdoctoral fellowships, and clinical ethics consultation embedded within a top-tier medical school — directly comparable to Berman in scope, programmatic mix, and academic positioning.

Emerging players

• ETH Zurich — SNF Bioethics Academy: European academic bioethics training initiative co-funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation alongside the Berman Institute. Comparable as a bioethics training partnership player, emerging in scale relative to Berman.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/bermaninstitute
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/BermanInstitute
• Facebookfacebook.com/bermaninstitute
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/johns-hopkins-university

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles12 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics