On 22 April 2015, the Secretary of State for Higher Education and Research Marc Hansen officially announced the launch of a national structure for research integrity in Luxembourg during an academic session organised by the FNR.
This structure will have two missions: on the one hand, it aims to promote good scientific practice, and on the other hand, it will put in place a commission of international experts that will treat cases or allegations indicating a breach of scientific research integrity. Many European countries already have similar structures in operation.
The national structure will be put in place by a working group composed of delegates from the FNR, the University of Luxembourg and the three public research centres (Luxembourg Institute of Health, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, Luxembourg Institute for Socio-Economic Research).
The academic session on 22 April was held in the presence of the managers of all public research institutions in Luxembourg as well as Michelle Bergadaà, Professor at the University of Geneva and Chair of the FNR Research Integrity Commission, Isidoros Karatzas, Head of Sector Ethics and Research Integrity of the European Commission, and Nicole Foeger, Head of the Austrian Agency for Research Integrity and Chair of the European Network of Research Integrity Offices (ENRIO). The session followed a General Meeting of the ENRIO network which was held for the first time in Luxembourg on 21 and 22 April, with 26 participants from 23 countries. The FNR is a member of this network since 2010, and maintains a Research Integrity Commission with international experts since 2011.
Prof. Bergadaà congratulated Luxembourg to have recognized to what extent the topic of research integrity is important both for the scientific community and society. Research integrity is also one of the topics chosen for Luxembourg’s EU Council presidency, which starts on 1 July 2015.