2024 Concordat to support research integrity consultation

Overview

The UK’s Concordat to Support Research Integrity (the Concordat) provides a vital national framework for practice and governance of research integrity in the UK. The Concordat is now due to undergo its five-year review in which the content of the Concordat will be updated and revised. To ensure that the update reflects the views and needs of stakeholders, the signatories of the Concordat invite you to take part in an online consultation. Your responses will help to shape any revisions to the Concordat so that it is fit for the future and continues to safeguard research integrity.

The survey comprises of 29 questions, with a mixture of multiple choice questions and longform questions. Longform responses are optional, the survey may take around 20 minutes to complete.

Why the review is being carried out?

Revision of the content of the Concordat will ensure that it is fit for the future and continues to safeguard research integrity. To ensure that the Concordat meets the needs of those who make use of it the signatories group is carrying out the review so that the Concordat:

1.   appropriately reflects recent developments in research nationally and internationally, including technological advances

2.   is appropriately aligned with international frameworks for research governance to support research carried out in international contexts

3.   is as useful and practical as possible

How the review will be carried out

The Concordat defines research integrity and contains a set of commitments to be met by researchers, employers, and funders of research. In 2019, the Concordat signatories committed to review the Concordat again in five years. To achieve this, the signatories of the Concordat are carrying out their update through a review group and consultation process. The review group comprises representatives from signatories group and is chaired by the co-chairs of the UK Committee on Research Integrity.

Your views will be collated by UKRI and then shared with and analysed by the Concordat to Support Research Integrity signatories review group. The signatories are: 

• Cancer Research UK
• Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland
• Higher Education Funding Council for Wales
• National Institute for Health Research
• Scottish Funding Council
• The British Academy
• UK Research and Innovation
• Wellcome Trust
• GuildHE Research

We ask some questions so that we can assess the balance of our engagement. You will be asked at the end of the survey if you are happy for someone from the group to contact you via email to invite you to further consultation. Any future publications documenting the consultation process will not contain any personally identifiable information.

Why your views matter

The review group is keen to hear from people across the research sector to inform revisions to the Concordat. This includes researchers and colleagues working in research at all career stages and in all roles; funders of research; research performing organisations; organisations that support research and researchers; and those who commission research.  

What happens next

This online survey will be open from May-July 2024. The survey responses will be analysed by the review group to inform further consultation exercises and inform amendments to the Concordat. We may publish a high-level summary of non-attribuatable findings from the consultation survey.