The Science and Technology Committee has published
responses from the Government and UKRI to the Committee’s Report
on Research
Integrity.
The Committee’s Report concluded that “error, questionable
practices, and outright fraud are possible in any human
endeavour, and research integrity must be taken seriously and
tackled head-on.” It called for a new national committee on
research integrity to be established, and the Government response
confirms that UKRI has been asked to explore this proposal in
more detail. UKRI expects to complete this work and report back
to the Committee by early 2019.
, Chair of the Science and
Technology Committee, said:
“I warmly welcome the Government’s commitment to explore the
central recommendation of our Report. A new national committee on
research integrity is needed to provide a way of checking that
research misconduct processes are being followed properly, and to
provide a national voice for the cause of research integrity.
“There is currently a gap in the system that needs to be filled.
Universities can be seen to be ‘policing themselves’ when it
comes to investigating research misconduct, and a new national
committee would provide a counterbalance to that inherent
conflict of interest.”
Background information: The 2012 Concordat
to Support Research Integrity provided a set of high-level
commitments to improving research integrity. However, the
Committee found that, six years on, around a quarter of
universities were not fulfilling the basic Concordat
recommendation of publishing data on the number of investigations
undertaken each year.
The Government response welcomed the Committee’s recommendations
on strengthening the Concordat. The UKRI response states that:
“As a signatory, we will work to make the concordat’s
requirements and expectations clearer. Over the next twelve
months, the signatories will agree the revised version of the
concordat and provide the committee with a route map and
timetable for reaching 100% compliance”.
Committee Chair said:
“It is encouraging that the Concordat to Support Research
Integrity is now being updated and strengthened by the
signatories in response to our Report, with a route map towards
100% compliance. I look forward to discussing progress on this
with Universities UK, UK Research and Innovation, and the UK
Research Integrity Office.
“My Committee will keep a close eye on developments to ensure
that actions are followed up, but it appears that the Government
and UKRI have listened and are taking our concerns seriously.”
ENDS
A pdf containing the full Government and UKRI responses is
attached to this email.
