European Ethics and Research Integrity Network

Topic description

Specific Challenge:

This action focuses on supporting ethics and research integrity activities in the Members States and at the European level. It aims to identify and share good practices and raise the awareness of ethics and research integrity among the research community, taking into account the diversity of stakeholders.

Various activities should be undertaken, such as benchmarking, joint workshops, and enhanced cross-border brokerage events. Priority is given to the development of training courses/material designed for the whole research community and interested social actors linked to ethics and research integrity.

In particular, the training courses/material should be used to enhance the knowledge of experts involved in the evaluation of research proposals. The training should mainly focus on existing European legislation (i.e. Charter of human rights, data protection legislation, dual use export regulation etc.). Special attention should also be given to enhance the competence of ethics and research integrity officers in all Member States and associated countries.

The participants are expected to create an e-community/database (using the EU commission tool SINAPSE hosted on the EU data centre) of European and whenever relevant international experts in the different fields of research ethics and integrity. This web platform should be dynamically managed by the members of the network. It should notably ensure the certification of the knowledge level of the experts and enable the progressive enrichment of this expert database. The main objective is to generate mutual benefit and optimal access to the best expertise by Member States, associated countries, European Institutions and other interested countries.

The action must develop measurable indicators for the effectiveness of the proposed activities, in particular the training and certification aspects.

Research Ethics committees and supporting structures, Research Integrity Offices –or the closest equivalent according to national law - from EU Member States, associated countries, neighbourhood policy countries, are encouraged to participate.

Strengthen the EU capacity to uphold the highest ethical standards, promote research integrity and minimise misconduct, notably via the exchange and the improvement of existing practices, the development of related training and the optimisation of the available knowledge stock and expertise.

In addition it is expected that while respecting the specific nature of research ethics and research integrity the European network established will reinforce the synergies between these two areas.