UK Research Organisations Had Until April 2026 to Meet the Refreshed 2025 Concordat

The Concordat to Support Research Integrity is the UK’s national, non-statutory framework for good research conduct and its governance. It was first published in 2012 and reviewed in 2019. The current edition, the third, was published on 4 April 2025 following a review and consultation led by the Research Integrity Concordat Signatories Group. It is a pan-disciplinary, UK-wide reference document that sets out commitments for researchers, research-supporting staff, research organisations and funders.

Although the Concordat is not law, it carries practical force. The UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO) notes that it is a condition of grants from many research funders, including UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Research England states that, under UKRI’s funding terms, eligible higher education providers must have procedures that meet the Concordat’s requirements, and that UKRI assesses compliance with this condition on an ongoing basis.

Secretariat support for the Concordat has moved from Universities UK to the UK Committee on Research Integrity (UKCORI). Universities UK continues to host the document on its website.

The five commitments are supported by underlying values. Secondary guides list these as honesty, rigour, transparency, care and respect, and accountability, although some sources phrase transparency as transparency and open communication. The commitments cover, among other things, maintaining the highest standards of rigour and integrity in all aspects of research, and the fifth commitment is the source of the annual reporting requirement described below. Readers should rely on the Concordat text for the exact wording.

UKCORI has said that the basic structure and requirements of the Concordat are unchanged and that it remains organised around five commitments. The text has been updated throughout for clarity and to reflect developments in research practice and governance since 2019. The Concordat continues to allow flexibility in how its commitments are implemented; it is not a prescriptive framework.

UKRIO’s briefing note on the refreshed Concordat highlights three areas of change in definitions: a new definition of research integrity, the definition of research misconduct, and, for the first time, a definition of questionable research practices. As quoted in institutional guidance, questionable research practices are described as minor infractions or research practices, including avoidable errors, which fall short of the definition of intentional research misconduct; they may arise from a lack of knowledge or attention to detail, negligence or deliberate action, and may occur without evident intention to deceive. UKRIO states that its briefing was prepared independently and is not endorsed by the signatories.

In a joint statement in April 2025, UKRIO and the UK Reproducibility Network endorsed the refreshed Concordat but said that further strengthening is needed, particularly on tackling poor and questionable research practices.

Organisations were given until April 2026 to adhere to the expectations of the 2025 Concordat and were asked to continue following the 2019 edition in the meantime. As of November 2026 that transition period has ended, so universities and other employers of researchers should now be operating under the 2025 text.

UKCORI states that employers of researchers are required to produce and publish a short annual statement on research integrity. Secondary guides report that the statement should describe how the organisation supports research integrity and include information on formal research misconduct investigations; organisations should check the exact content requirements in the Concordat itself. UKCORI encourages organisations to use the existing annual statement reporting template, and UKRIO has published a self-assessment tool to help organisations identify policies and systems that may need revision to meet the 2025 edition.

UKCORI has also published an analysis of research integrity annual statements, which gives organisations a view of how their peers are reporting.

For research offices, the immediate task is to confirm that policies, training and misconduct procedures reflect the 2025 definitions, in particular the new category of questionable research practices, which may need a proportionate route distinct from formal misconduct investigation. Annual statements published after April 2026 should refer to the 2025 Concordat rather than the 2019 edition.

For individual researchers, medical writers and collaborators, the Concordat sets the expectations against which their conduct will be judged by UK employers and funders. Sponsors and contract research organisations collaborating with UK universities should expect partner institutions to apply their Concordat-aligned procedures if a concern arises. This brief is for information only and does not represent the view of any signatory body.