It has been a busy few months for the Committee, with significant activity across our projects and engagements.
The Committee extends its appreciation to the sector and everyone who contributes and continues to engage with our work. Thank you for your continued work to champion research integrity.
We encourage ongoing engagement and welcome your thoughts, questions or contributions. If you are interested in getting involved in the work of the Committee, please contact the Committee’s secretariat at secretariat@ukcori.org.
Extension of the UK Committee on Research Integrity
We are pleased to announce the extension of the Committee for two years. Originally set up in May 2022 in response to a recommendation by the previous House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, in their 2018 report, the Committee’s original three-year term was completed in April 2025 and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has confirmed a two-year extension.
The Committee extends its profound gratitude to Professor Andrew George, who has chosen not to renew his role as co-chair, for his valuable contributions and leadership. We are pleased to announce that Dame Jil Matheson has stepped into the role in the interim, joining Professor Rachael Gooberman-Hill as co-chair of the Committee for the next 6 months.
You can read more about the Committee and ongoing programme of work in our work.
Meeting with the Chair of the House of Commons’ Science, Innovation and Technology Committee
In March, Professor Rachael Gooberman-Hill co-chair of the Committee met with Rt Hon Chi Onwurah, MP Chair of House of Commons’ Science, Innovation and Technology Committee (SITC) to discuss our work to safeguard trust in and the quality of UK Research.
Our discussion focused on the relationship between integrity, rigour, and diversity of researcher teams. We spoke of the UK Concordat to Support Research Integrity and highlighted the principle of ‘care and respect’, which relates to participants in research as well as those working within the research system.
We also provided updates on the Committee’s activities – including the Committee’s annual statement that provides evidence about integrity in UK research alongside insights from engagements across the research ecosystem. We were pleased to also share that we are working on our 2025 Annual Statement.
Concordat to Support Research Integrity relaunch
In April, the 2025 refreshed Concordat to Support Research Integrity (pdf) was launched. Alongside the published refreshed Concordat, was the review of the Concordat document (pdf) summarising the consultation undertaken across the sector by the Research Integrity Concordat Signatories (RICS) Group and the changes that were made in response.
Organisations have until April 2026 to adhere to the new expectations, including those related to annual statements.
You can read more about the Concordat on this website.
Our workstream on addressing poor research practices and research misconduct – June working group meeting
At the June meeting, the Committee’s cross sector working group on addressing poor research practices and research misconduct reflected on work RAND Europe had completed to date. The group recognised the extent of work that had been undertaken.
RAND Europe shared workstream updates including their plans for analysis and proposed stakeholder engagement to validate findings and report outcomes. With respect to workstream 1, interviews with research integrity leads/managers, panellists and individuals with devolved research integrity responsibilities are currently ongoing. Workstream 1 seeks to characterise the governance of research misconduct in the UK HEI research sector. RAND Europe highlighted that the timings of the interviews have been altered to accommodate the availability of those contacted for interview.
For workstream 2, interviews with country representatives, including review of the country case studies are due to be completed shortly. Workstream 2 seeks to provide evidence on international models for managing research misconduct to inform potential adaptations to UK’s approach.
Workstream 3 seeks to provide evidence on different models of assurance and governance in UK sectors independent or adjacent to the UK research system. Desk research has been completed for longlisted and shortlisted mechanisms, and RAND Europe are planning and scoping for interviews that will allow for the identification of practices that might strengthen current procedures for investigating research misconduct.
Updates on the Committee’s project on Artificial Intelligence and research integrity
The Committee’s working group on AI are continuing to explore the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and research integrity to identify how integrity can be embedded where AI is used in research.
Following the publication of the refreshed Concordat to Support Research Integrity in April 2025, the Committee has provided a perspective, with a focus on researchers, on how to consider the use of Generative AI (GenAI) (pdf) through the five principles of research integrity contained in the Concordat.
We also commissioned an external perspectives piece on the benefits and challenges of AI-based research tools. The piece examines the roles of guidelines, AI tools, and evaluation in the effective and ethical use of AI in research. You can read the Research Integrity in the Era of Generative AI – A Perspective (pdf) on our website.
Additionally, we present a bibliography on works that have been read by various members of the AI working group and that have influenced the group’s perspectives and outputs. You can read the bibliography – AI working group bibliography (pdf) on our website. Please note that this bibliography is presented with neutrality, offering no judgement or endorsement regarding the content of the listed works.
If you have any comments or feedback on any of the materials above, please contact the Committee’s secretariat at secretariat@ukcori.org.
Assessing and understanding the value of research integrity roundtable, March 2025
On 7 March 2025, the UK Committee on Research Integrity convened a small group of experts in a virtual exploratory roundtable to share their knowledge about assessment of research integrity.
The objectives of the roundtable were to discuss:
- what existing sources of information may be used to understand the health of research integrity
- whether and how it might be possible to evidence any relationship between research integrity and value of that research for society and economy
Discussions indicated that while some useful data existed, this is spread in a range of sources. These include cases, case studies, full text publications, bibliometrics, and evidence of existing practices in organisations. Data can provide indications of patterns in the research system.
The discussion highlighted the importance of consideration of the reasons for collecting or analysing data. Metrics serve their purposes best when accompanied by explanation of their meaning. The range of fields engaged in the research might mean there is a need for field-specificity in any approaches to data collection or use. Equally, there is a need to consider any unanticipated consequences of the use of metrics.
Assessing and understanding research integrity and its value is important to the health of the research system. As a Committee, we will continue to strengthen research integrity in the UK. Attention to the matters identified by the expert group will support our approaches to do so.
The Committee’s 2025 Annual Statement due to be published this summer will include evidence sources that inform our work.
Case studies
In this issue, we publish a new in-depth case study from our series of commissioned case studies. In this case study, the University of Cambridge (pdf) shares how it supports a volunteer led data champion programme across its colleges and institutions, to assist researchers in navigating data management.
We welcome the submission of case studies for future publication, and guidelines for this can be found in our case study guidance (pdf).
You can read more case studies on our website.
UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO) 2025 survey
We have been asked to share a stakeholder survey being carried out by the independent charity, the UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO). They are seeking views from across the research sector about their charity’s work and services. The survey is open until 18 June 2025 on this link – UKRIO 2025 Stakeholder survey.
UK Committee on Research Integrity: reflections, April 2025 meeting
The UK Committee on Research Integrity’s April 2025 meeting was hosted by UK Research and Innovation in London. It was recognised that the resource constraints faced by Higher Education Institutions is an increasing challenge and sharpens our resolve to provide simple and clear guidance to support and help the research community.
The Committee is delighted to now host the refreshed Concordat to Support Research Integrity, which has been revised to simplify and improve clarity. To accompany this, the AI working group has produced a short perspective on the impact of GenAI (pdf) on the five principles, highlighting pitfalls to look out for as well as benefits that could improve research integrity and efficiency. We also discussed the important and careful work of the Research Misconduct workstream and the most effective implementation for the sector.
We have been listening to feedback from the community on the effectiveness of our communications and used this to prepare for a communications and messaging workshop on the following day. A strength of the Committee is the breadth of experience spanning arts, humanities, science and engineering which leads to stimulating discussion with a plurality of perspectives. We find that this leads to better and more robust decision making.
Ian Gilmore, UK Committee on Research Integrity member