In the conduct of research

One of the necessary conditions to make ERC competitions fair and efficient and to maintain the trust of both the scientific community and society as a whole is to uphold ethical standards at all stages of the competitive process, and to maintain and promote a culture of research integrity. An essential part of this task is to detect and treat vigorously any allegations of scientific misconduct and to counteract decisively all practices that involve scientific misconduct. To this end, the ERC Scientific Council has delegated to the Standing Committee on Conflict of Interests, Scientific Misconduct and Ethical Issues (CoIME) the responsibility for formulating guidelines on conflict of interest, fraud and ethical matters related to any facet of the ERC's competences, clarifying criteria and considering any particular instance or situation where ethical concerns may arise. The COIME will work closely with the ERC Executive Agency (ERCEA) to address all cases of suspected scientific misconduct that come to the attention of the ERC, with the purpose of reinforcing the capability of the ERC to take appropriate follow-up actions.