The European Commission has just issued the publication “CORDIS Results Pack on ethics and integrity in research – a thematic collection of innovative EU-funded research results”. The publication features innovative EU funded research projects that address a range of aspects related to ethics and integrity in research. CFA has played a key role in two of these projects: SOPs4RI and HYBRIDA.

The SOPs4RI project was coordinated by Professor Mads P. Sørensen from CFA and Vice-Dean Niels Mejlgaard from Aarhus BSS. In an interview in the publication, Sørensen explains that “SOPs4RI created a collection of easy-to-use standard operating procedures and guidelines that research performing organizations and research funding organizations can use to develop their own research integrity promotion plans.”. The procedures and guidelines are provided via the SOPs4RI Toolbox, an open, free and practice-oriented platform designed to support responsible research.

Sørensen further argues that these procedures and guidelines are necessary in a world where “intended and unintended breaches of integrity and good research practice reduce the quality of the research produced and the trustworthiness of the results”. The European Commission describes the Toolbox as “comprehensive” and as having “guidelines addressing all research integrity topics and subtopics”. The SOPs4RI Toolbox is already being used by several European and international institutions. It is also referenced in the EU’s Horizon Europe framework programme, as well as in the new version of the ALLEA European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity.

Besides Mads P. Sørensen and Niels Mejlgaard, senior researcher Tine Ravn, PhD student Simon Fuglsang, Center leader Carter Bloch, Professor Jesper Wiborg Schneider and Senior researcher Jens Peter Andersen, all part of CFA, also took part in the project.

The HYBRIDA project analyses ethical aspects of organoid research. The European Commission emphasizes several important outcomes of the research project including operational guidelines on organoids and organoid-related technologies, a Code for Responsible Conduct for Researchers on Organoids and related fields, and a complement to the ALLEA European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity to embed the ethical dimension of organoids-based research and related technologies.

Senior researcher Tine Ravn, Professor Mads P. Sørensen, and PhD student Louise Isgaard Saugstrup from CFA took part in the project. Sørensen and Ravn have led the stakeholder engagement work in HYBRIDA, designing and carrying out deliberative workshops with the public, expert workshops and interviews, and a focus group study.