Research ethics and research integrity

• Author: Delaney, Niamh; Tornasi, Zeno; Monachello, Roberta
• Pages: 16-33

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2. RESEARCH ETHICS AND RESEARCH INTEGRITY

Ethics is an integral part of all research activities funded by the European Union, and

ethical compliance is essential to guarantee research excellence.18,19,20 All projects

carried out under Hori zon 2020 must comply with ethical prin ciples and relevant

national, EU and international legislation, for example the Charter of Fundamental Rights

of the European Union and the European Convention on Human Righ ts.

Furthermore, the European Commission promotes adherence to the highest standards of

research integrity across Europe.

In December 2015, in its Conclusions on Research Integri ty, the Council of the Eu ropean

Union acknowl edged that research integrity is key to achieving research excellence and

that measures should be taken to prevent research misconduct and invited the

Commission and all stakeholders to define and implement polici es t o t his effect. As a

result, the revised p rovisions in the Horizon 2020 Model Grant Agr eement explicitly call

for beneficiaries to respect the principles and practices included i n the European Code of

Conduct for Research Integrity (EcoC). The Commissi on played a key role in the revision

of this Code in 2017 and the process was led by All European Academies (ALLEA) in

cooperation with stakeholders including industry, academia and research funders.

SwafS has financed a number of p rojects aimed at fo stering and promoting a better

understanding of ethics and research i ntegrity issues and supporting the research

community in this area. The fun ding of SwafS projects and the ethics app raisal process

in Horizon 20 20 are helping to raise awareness among researchers in academia and

industry as w ell as relevant actors on the importance of ethics and research integrity as

a means of promoting excellence in research.

These projects constitute a range of initiatives focused on strengthening the capacity of

research organisations, researchers, ethics committees, research integrity offices and

funding bodies.

Furthermore, these projects contributed to building a governance fram ework for

research ethics (RE) and research integrity (RI). A community of RE and RI actors was

set up to facilitate exchange of knowledge and exp erience and to leverage improvements

in the existing mechanisms in place to ensure RE and RI (see 2.3 .1).

Currently, interesting developments concern the definition of new guidelines and codes

in areas dealing with new technologies with potentially high social and economic imp act

and potentially affecting human rights.

Artificial intelligence, robotics, human genomics and human enhancement offer benefits

for both individuals and society. However, they also raise complex ethical issues that

need to be addressed at EU level.

There is a pressing need to provide ethi cal responses and practical options which support

innovation, the research community, facilitate t he work of ethics committees and take

into consideration the expectations of society.

Guidelines are currently being developed taki ng into account the ethical implications of

these domains with the active invol vement of rel evant stakeholders. A number of these

guidelines are expected to be published during the course of 2020.

18 H2020 Rules for Participation, Art. 14 (Ethics Reviews)

19 H2020 Regulation of Establishment, Art. 19 (Ethical principles)

20 H2020 Model Grant Agreement, Art. 34 (Ethics and Research Integrity)

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2.1. Policy objectives

According to Annex I – Part V of the Specific Prog ramme Co uncil Decision of

3/12/201321, the policy objective on R esearch Ethi cs and Research Integrity in Horizon

2020 is twofold:

 Integrate society i n science and innovation issues, policies and activities in order to

integrate citizens' i nterests and values and to increase the quality, relevance, social

acceptability an d sustainability of research and innovation outcomes in vari ous fields

of activity from social innovation to areas such as biotechnology and nanotechnol ogy;

 Develop the governance for the ad vancement of responsible research and innovation

by all stakeholders ( researchers, public authorities, industry and civil society

organisations), which is sensitive to society’s needs and demands, and promote an

ethics framework for research and innovation.

More specific policy objectives have been identified in the various topics in the work

programmes:

 Examine research in tegrity and research misconduct and enhance existing codes of

conduct;

 Strengthen the EU’s capaci ty to uphold the highest ethical standards, promote

research integrity and minimise misconduct by promoting best practices;

 Reinforce synergies between European networks active in research integrity and

research ethics;

 Promote innovative methods for teaching ethics and research integrity;

 Map the ethics and research integrity normative frameworks;

 Analyse the ethics of technologies wi th high socio-economic impact and hu man rights

relevance and elaborate appropriate guidance documents and area-specific codes

which will allow ethics to be perceived as a driver of excellent research and

innovation and not a red tape measure;

 Examine methods to reduce the risk of exporting unethical practi ces to th ird

countries.

2.2. Project portfolio

Research Ethics & Research Integrity were the main themes in topics throughout Ho rizon

2020’s three w ork programmes, resul ting in 15 funded projects with a combined budget

of EUR 40.722 million (2020 call not included in which three projects are expected to be

funded in th e area of organoids, ethics of technologies with high socio-economi c impact,

and responsible open science in relation to ethics and integrity).

21 Regulation (EU) No 1291/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Counc il establishing Horizon 2020

22 The slight difference in the total figure calculated on basis of budget allocated to each project in table 3 is due to rounding