Concordats are agreed sets of expectations for the conditions under which research and innovation happen. They cover a wide range of issues that support researchers and have been developed in response to different challenges and opportunities. We contribute to concordats and help government and universities implement them.
Good research is underpinned by:
We are signatories to the Concordat to support research integrity, which sets out expectations for all those involved in research through five high-level commitments.
The success of UK research depends on universities' ability to attract, support and reward all research staff.
We support universities to do this by contributing to sector-wide initiatives such as the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers. You can find out more about the concordat on the Researcher Development Concordat website.
We are a formal supporter of the Technician Commitment. The initiative aims to make sure there is visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability for technicians working in higher education and research.
Many of our 140 members have already signed the Commitment individually, underlining the sector’s efforts to enhance and promote technical skills while supporting staff development. You can find out how we are supporting the values of the Technician Commitment in our action plan.
Many of our members are engaged in essential research using animals. They are subject to one of the most comprehensive and robust regulatory systems in the world. Recognising that this research is necessary and has the potential to deliver significant benefits, we encourage our members to:
be open and transparent in their research practices
follow best practice in husbandry and welfare at all times
actively engage with the 3Rs agenda
We sit on the governance group of the Concordat on openness on animal research in the UK. We are also signatories.
We support the Concordat for Engaging the Public with Research, which aims to help embed public engagement in universities and research institutes. The concordat seeks to support, recognise and promote existing good practice in public engagement.
We also support a group of partners on a project to explore the barriers to public engagement by researchers. We look for opportunities to promote discussions between researchers, universities, research institutes, funders and the public.
Along with UKRI and the Wellcome Trust, we have commissioned Basis Social to gather evidence on how the various concordats and agreements are working in the research sector.
Although the concordats and agreements ('initiatives') help the research community in several ways, they can overlap in scope, and their adoption and impact is inconsistent. There is also no overall assessment of their collective effect on research conditions in the UK, including culture, infrastructure, skills, policies and procedures.
