Concordat to Support Research Integrity - Public Statement 2025

Section 1: Key Contact Information

Name of organisation	Durham University
Type of organisation:	Higher Education Institution
Date statement approved by governing body (DD/MM/YY)	16/12/25
Web address of organisation’s research integrity page	https://www.durham.ac.uk/research/ethics--governance/
Named senior member of staff to oversee research integrity	Professor Colin Bain, pvc.research@durham.ac.uk
Named member of staff who will act as a first point of contact for anyone wanting more information on matters of research integrity	Catherine Brewer, research.policy@durham.ac.uk

Section 2: Promoting high standards of research integrity and positive research culture. Description of actions and activities undertaken

2A. Description of current systems and culture

Integrity is one of Durham University’s core lived values that underpins our institutional strategy.  A research-intensive institution, we are committed to the principles of research integrity as set out in the Concordat to Support Research Integrity, recognising these as the foundation of good research practice essential to the conduct of high quality research.

The Research Integrity Policy and Code of Good Practice is the overarching policy which sets out the University’s expectations and responsibility for research integrity and ethics. This is supplemented by supporting policies on specific aspects of research integrity, including Research Data Management, and Responsible Use of Metrics.  Central services, including Research and Innovation Services and University Library, provide systems and guidance to support implementation of these policies.

The University provides a range of training, development and mentoring opportunities for researchers at different career stages. These include the Researcher Development Programme aimed at PGRs and ECRs, the Leading Researchers Programme for mid to late career researchers, a training programme for supervisors, online Research Integrity training modules and a range of tailored sessions and workshops on different aspects of research integrity.

Implementation and development of the university’s vision for Research Culture, Flourish@Durham, is overseen by the Associate PVC for Research Culture.  They are supported by the Research Culture Team and Research Culture Committee, a sub-committee of University Research Committee, which receives regular reports on activity relating to Flourish@Durham, as well as specific activities relating to the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and the Concordat to Support Research Integrity.

2B. Changes and developments during the period under review

During academic year 2024/25 we have reviewed and updated policies which clarify the University’s expectations on matters of responsible research conduct, taking into account developments in sector requirements and best practice.  We have done further work on systems and training which support researchers in meeting these requirements, and continued work on creating a positive research culture that will facilitate responsible and inclusive research practice.   Developments include:

Policies and statements:

• The University has approved updated Research Integrity, Research Misconduct, and Research Data Management policies as well as the University general Safeguarding Policy. We took the decision to streamline our suite of Research Integrity-related policies, incorporating the previously separate policies on Ethics in Research and Scholarship and Engagement of the Public in Research into the Research Integrity Policy, making it a single reference point for key ethics and integrity requirements. 
• We are reviewing our policies and processes in the light of the updated Concordat to Support Research Integrity published in April 2025. While we believe that our refreshed policies are in line with the new version of the Concordat, we will look at updating supporting guidance and processes as required.
• The University has signed the Concordat for the Environmental Sustainability of Research and Innovation Practice, and is working on a number of initiatives in support of this, including LEAF accreditation and a new business travel policy.
• Our commitment to Open Access and the need to ensure that scholarly communication remains financially sustainable is reflected in the Statement on sustainable scholarly publishing by the N8 Research Partnership, of which Durham University is part.

Systems:

• We have further developed our Ethics and Research Integrity Portal (online ethics system). This already included an ethics and governance checklist to signpost researchers to the ethics and governance processes they may need to consider; completion of this checklist is now a requirement for all funded research projects.  We have integrated a number of governance processes into the system through the introduction of forms to support assessment for Trusted Research and Nagoya Protocol requirements, as well as the Risk Assessment required for storage of human tissue.

Training and Development:

• Durham Centre for Academic Development launched a new online training resource for PGR students, ‘A journey through research integrity’.
• As part of work to support dialogue around research ethics and culture, the Faculty of Social Sciences launched a new ‘ethics forum’, an annual event combining expert and ‘best practice’ presentations and staff-led workshops on emerging issues. The theme of the first session was ‘the social life of ethics review’, looking at the operation of research ethics committees and their contribution to the wider governance of the University.

Culture:

• Our Research Culture team has developed and is piloting the 'Flourish Framework for Innovation and Growth' with departments and research institutes. This is a four-step process to support these units to reflect on their culture, define their strengths and areas they want to improve, and identify actions and activities that will embed a positive research culture.
• Our Reimagining Governance Project is an innovative approach to understanding what makes for effective and inclusive research governance. We have shared our experience with other Universities through the N8 network, the Warwick International Research Culture Conference, and Advance HE and Association of Research Managers and Administrators (ARMA) conferences.
• The University is moving forward with its action plan to implement the Technician Commitment, including broadening career development opportunities for technical staff and increasing representation on departmental research committees and other groups. The University received a Technician Commitment Impact Award in recognition of its progress in this area.
• Durham University has joined the Prosper community of practice, becoming part of an innovative approach to postdoc career development led by the University of Liverpool. The Durham Prosper Programme was launched in June 2025, and the first cohort will start in October 2025.
• Recognising that activities to support postdocs and other Early Career Researchers are led by professional service departments, University Research Institutes and academic departments across the University, a new Postdoc/ECR liaison group has been established to facilitate communication and pooling of resources between these different areas. Durham University is also a delivery partner for new North East of England and Northern Ireland cluster of the British Academy’s Early Career Researcher Network (ECRN), launched in January 2025.
• We have joined the community of practice for the UK Reproducibility Network’s, ‘Open and Responsible Researcher Reward and Recognition’ (OR4) project. As part of this we provided feedback to support development of the self-assessment tool for institutions to assess progress on recognising and rewarding open research practices.
• The Faculty of Science has put in place People, Culture and Environment Champions as part of preparations for the upcoming Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2029; these roles are now being formalised and strengthened to link with the University’s Flourish@Durham research culture activity.  If successful, this approach will be extended to other faculties

2C. Reflections on progress and plans for future developments

In common with other institutions across the higher education sector, Durham University has faced financial pressures over the past academic year, meaning that there is less resource to take forward our work.  As a result, we have had to slow down or pause work in some areas to take account of the resource available.  Nevertheless, we have made progress in many of the areas for development identified in our previous statement.

• We have progressed work to improve processes and support for higher risk research, including health research and work with international partners. New guidance and standard operating procedures for work with the NHS are in development.  In addition to implementing a new assessment process for Trusted Research considerations, we are also embedding risk mitigations into our processes for academic visitors and international travel.
• We have developed some initial reports from our online ethics system to help identify areas with higher risk research, as well as to support departments in tracking students’ completion of ethics applications. This work is ongoing.
• We have begun work to review our Work with Outside Bodies Policy and related processes to support effective and transparent research and partnership due diligence.
• Work on improving access to research training is being taken forward as part of a development of a Researcher Hub on SharePoint which will consolidate training and other resources that are currently linked from different locations.

Some areas have proven more challenging to progress:

• The cross-institutional mentoring programme for mid-career researchers proposed by the N8 is proving challenging to develop, so this has not moved forward as planned.
• We have recognised that while expectations and processes to support Open Access publication are strongly embedded at Durham University, other aspects of Open Scholarship have a lower profile for researchers. Although we set up an Open Scholarship Working Group which produced a vision statement, we currently lack a critical mass to drive this forward.  Further work in this area will be taken forward as part of the remit of University Library and Collections, and our membership of OR4 will also help reflection on possibilities for future development.  

Future developments

Key areas of activity in the next academic year will include work on environmental sustainability and the continuing Flourish@Durham work, including the first Prosper cohort, further work on the Research Culture Framework, and the conclusion of the ‘Reimagining Governance’ project. In addition to the ongoing work mentioned above, we will

• Review our research integrity training offer, taking into account new and refreshed online training newly available to us, with a view to improving communication and signposting of the different courses to relevant audiences.
• Review our researcher development offer in the light of the new Researcher Development Framework from Vitae.
• Review guidance on reporting concerns in the light of the definition of ‘questionable research practices’ in the 2025 Research Integrity Concordat.

Develop dedicated support and training for researchers conducting NHS research to better support the researchers and meet Sponsor responsibilities to be more agile to changes in requirements and developments during the conduct of the research.

Section 3: Addressing research misconduct

3A. Statement on processes that the organisation has in place for dealing with allegations of misconduct

The current Research Misconduct Policy was approved in February 2025, following a review of processes in the light of recent experiences. This version of the policy included an expanded ‘receipt of allegations’ stage, more information about the conduct of the ‘preliminary investigation’ stage and adjustments to timescales to allow for appointment of investigators, clarification of the role of Research and Innovation Services in supporting the PVC Research in applying the procedure, and expanded sections on confidentiality to make clear the circumstances in which information may be shared and the limits on this.

Related policies include the Public Interest Disclosure Policy (Whistleblowing), approved May 2024, and the Staff Concerns Policy, which covers Bullying and Harassment as well as other concerns, approved in February 2022.

The Research Integrity Policy and Code of Good Practice highlights informal routes for raising potential issues of poor practice or inadvertent error, while also signposting the formal routes available for reporting suspected misconduct where appropriate.  In the updated policy approved in 2025, the relevant section of the policy was restructured and re-worded to make clearer the distinction between poor practice and misconduct.  The ‘Staff Concerns Hub’ also provides guidance on both informal and formal avenues for raising concerns, and supporting information for those involved in these processes, whether they are raising a concern, having a concern raised about them, or involved in a management role.

None of the three allegations received in 2024/25 were investigated through the Research Misconduct Process: one did not meet definition of research misconduct and was handled through alternative HR processes.  The two other cases involved PhD students which are normally picked up through student misconduct processes – depending on the nature of the allegation we have hybrid processes between the Student Conduct team and the relevant specialist process e.g. research or information governance – and we have identified that this could be more streamlined as the practice is not working as well as set out in the various policies.

3B. Information on investigations of research misconduct that have been undertaken

Type of allegation	Number of allegations
	Number of allegations reported to the organisation	Number of formal investigations	Number upheld in part after formal investigation	Number upheld in full after formal investigation
Fabrication
Falsification
Plagiarism
Failure to meet legal, ethical and professional obligations
Misrepresentation (eg data; involvement; interests; qualification; and/or publication history)
Improper dealing with allegations of misconduct
Multiple areas of concern (when received in a single allegation)
Other*	3	0
Total:	3	0

 

* These allegations were received under the Research Misconduct Procedure but referred for investigation under alternative processes following initial screening.

a)       Complaint relating to staff conduct in relation to internal charges and failure to obtain proper authorisations referred to HR

b)      Complaint relating to information included in a published thesis (with attribution) handled by Legal Services and Information Governance in relation to data protection considerations.

c)       Complaint relating to student conduct in relation to handling of data referred to student misconduct.