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The Concordat to Support Research Integrity in the UK

Clarisse Faria-Fortecoëf

Universities UK and the UK's major research and Higher Education funders have signed on Wednesday, July 11, 2012, the Concordat to Support Research Integrity which could become a prerequisite for awarding scholarships to researchers.

The Concordat to Support Research Integrity sets out five major commitments intended to provide a national framework for good research conduct and its governance:

Maintaining the highest standards of rigour and integrity in all aspects of research.
Ensuring that research is conducted according to appropriate ethical, legal and professional frameworks, obligations and standards.
Supporting a research environment that is underpinned by a culture of integrity and based on good governance, best practice and support for the development of researchers.
Using transparent, robust and fair processes to deal with allegations of research misconduct should they arise.
Working together to strengthen the integrity of research and to reviewing progress regularly and openly.

David Willets, UK Minister for Universities and Science, emphasizes the need for a shared commitment among researchers, employers and research funding. The Minister says that research must be based on "rigour, integrity and excellence" and that this ethical orientation "should remain an absolute priority".

The Concordat draws on the Singapore Statement on Research Integrity (2010) and the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity (2011). This document is therefore part of a continuity and contributes to promote British research through "greater openness and transparency".

Honesty, ethics, transparency, rigour and respect have to become the standard of the tomorrow UK's research.

> Read the document (.pdf) : The concordat to support research integrity

> For more information