The concordat for research integrity

​Universities UK, together with signatories to the concordat including UK Research & Innovation and Wellcome Trust, has reaffirmed its pledge to the revised concordat to support research integrity to further assure government, business, international partners and the public that they can continue to have confidence in UK research and its world-leading researchers.

The revised concordat to support research integrity, published on October 25 2019, is an updated version of the first concordat to support research integrity (2012). The concordat responds to recommendations set out in the Science and Technology Committee's report on research integrity, published in July 2018.

The commitments within the concordat call on universities, research institutes and individual researchers to ensure their work is underpinned by rigorous high standards. This issue of research integrity must be continually revisited, to guarantee its principles are understood and accepted and that newly-introduced ethical, legal and professional obligations are met.

Period of implementation

The signatories of the concordat have agreed that there should be a 12-month period of implementation for the revised concordat to support research integrity. This means that employers of researchers must be able to demonstrate their commitment to the new concordat by October 25 2020.

As a minimum, this means that all employers of researchers must be able to demonstrate by October 25 2020 that they have:

1. identified a named point of contact who will act as a first point of contact for anyone wanting more information on matters of research integrity, and ensure that contact details for this person are kept up to date and are publicly available on the institution's website (on page 11)  
   
2. provided a named point of contact or recognised an appropriate third party to act as confidential liaison for whistle-blowers or any other person wishing to raise concerns about the integrity of research being conducted under their auspices (on page 14)
   
3. published an annual statement on how they are meeting the requirements of the revised concordat (on page 16)
   

Contact us:

If you have any queries relating to the Concordat to Support Research Integrity, please email RIsecretariat@universitiesuk.ac.uk