Inrap signs the French Charter for Research Integrity

Public institutions engaged in higher education and research have a major role to play in taking up the challenges of a society of knowledge and innovation. They have a duty to foster, share and transfer decisive breakthroughs in all fields of knowledge, helping to ensure that qualified expertise is put to good use, particularly in support of public policy. This is a serious responsibility, and one which implies consolidating trust between the research community and society at large.

The French Charter for Research Integrity sets out the necessary criteria for rigorous and trustworthy scientific work. It is the national incarnation of the major international texts in this domain, and forms part of the reference framework contained in the European HORIZON 2020 programme for research and innovation.

All public institutions and organisations engaged in higher education and research have a responsibility to implement this charter, by promoting best practices in research, raising awareness and providing training for their staff and students, providing ethical guidelines and establishing clear and universally-acknowledged procedures for preventing and dealing with any potential infringement of the ethical rules.

Inrap has thus undertaken to ensure that all of its researchers abide by the principles of research integrity in their work: compliance with legislative and regulatory requirements; reliability of research work; communication; responsibility in collective work; impartiality and independence in assessment and expertise; collaborative work and plurality of activities; training.

Inrap

The National Institute for Research in Preventive Archaeology (Inrap) is a public institution operating under the aegis of the Ministries for Culture and Research. Inrap is responsible for locating and studying archaeological heritage sites ahead of construction and development work. Every year, Inrap conducts some 1,800 archaeological surveys and over 200 digs on behalf of private and public developers in mainland France and the overseas territories. The institute’s capabilities span the whole spectrum of scientific analysis and interpretation of dig data, as well as efforts to share the fruits of archaeological research with a wider audience. The institute’s 2,200 agents are spread across 8 regional and interregional departments, 42 research centres and a headquarters in Paris, making Inrap the largest archaeological research organisation in Europe.

Ofis 

A division of the French High Council for Evaluation of Research and Higher Education (Hcéres), the French Office for Research Integrity (Ofis) is a inter-disciplinary national body with three key responsibilities:

• It contributes to defining a national scientific integrity policy. It coordinates reflection on defining standards, opinions and recommendations. It accompanies higher education and research institutions within the conference of signatories of the 2015 charter.  
• It manages a national observatory on implementation of the commitments in the 2015 charter and on practices complying with the international standards. It conducts intelligence activities and disseminates information (notably on new forms of research: participatory science, big data, re-use of data and “open science”).  
• It fosters the harmonisation and sharing of scientific integrity practices. It coordinates and promotes the work of the network of “Scientific Integrity” Officers in institutions. It encourages research in this area. It represents France at European and international levels. It is a member of the ENRIO (European Network of Research Integrity Offices) network.

Contacts

• Eddie Ait
  Delegate for Institutional Relationships and Patronage
  Inrap Central Office
  +33 (0)1 42 08 81 02 - 06 78 78 92 09 – eddie.ait@inrap.fr
• Joëlle Alnot
  Head of Department
  Ofis
  +33 (0)1 55 55 61 76 – joelle.alnot@hceres.fr