Research Councils UK publishes assurance questions for UK universities on research integrity

In 2012, UK research funders and other bodies published the Concordat to Support Research Integrity, setting out what actions they require employers and researchers to take in support of research integrity. The Concordat also describes how its authors will monitor the implementation of the new requirements:

‘To provide assurance over efforts to strengthen research integrity, Research Councils UK will use its existing assurance mechanisms to garner feedback on activity across the sector. This information will be made available to other funders and provide an evidence base for the annual statement, thereby reducing the need for additional reporting requirements.’

Research Councils UK has now published the assurance questions it will use as part of this process. The six questions have been piloted with a group of universities and agreed by all of the funding bodies which are signatories to the Concordat. A postscript to the questions states:

‘The information received will be shared in confidence (but not anonymised) between the funders that are signatories to the Concordat. This means that each funder will not need  to ask HEIs to respond to its own assurance questions. Any information made public will be anonymised, except for example to identify good practice.’

The assurance questions are now available on the Research Councils UK website:

Research Councils UK: Assurance on Research Integrity & Ethics