Report:8ebf742d-a3d3-4453-86b4-b5d90ab9eeb8

Facts & Figures

Lithuania

Where

• Lithuania

Research infrastructure

According to the preliminary data, there were 9,538 full-time researchers in Lithuania in 2019 . In 2021 Lithuania has 18 universities – 11 public and 7 private; 22 colleges – 12 public and 10 private; 17 research institutes – 11 public and 6 private; and 5 Integrated Science, Studies and Business Centres (Valleys) .

Research funding

In 2019, the gross expenditures on research and development were €483.868 million, which comprises 1% of the country’s GDP . Most funding was spent in the business sector (43%), higher education (36.53%) and government sector (20,47%) .

In 2020, Lithuania had 476 grants in H2020 projects, receiving €89.1 million funding from H2020 . It also had 1 ERC signed grant receiving €2.5 million from H2020 .

Research strategy

The Lithuania’s Progress Strategy “Lithuania 2030” reflects a national vision and priorities for development and guidelines for their implementation by 2030. It emphasizes that the Strategy was built on the principles of sustainable development, tangible and intangible national resources and social development, but it also points out the significant problems Lithuania has been facing, such as “identity crisis, the power of stereotypes, emigration, closed society, lack of tolerance and trust, lack of concern for one another and the environment, as well as fragile faith in country’s success”. Therefore, the Strategy aims to address these issues. Some of the key issues concern public approval and participation, so the engagement of the public is necessary for the Strategy to reach its objectives . At the end of 2020 the Lithuanian government approved the National Progress Program for 2021-2030, which aims to identify the main changes to be achieved in the country in the next decade, ensuring progress in the science, social, economic and security fields, and to mobilize the sources of financing for the implementation of these changes. The program sets out 10 long-term strategic goals, progress targets and quantified indicators to measure progress with targets for 2030. The strategic goals are implemented in accordance with three horizontal principles: innovation, sustainable development and equal opportunities for all, which aim to consistently form the values important for the progress of society and to promote the desired changes in attitudes and behaviour .

Research governance, compliance and integrity

Lithuania has several national bodies for research integrity: The Lithuanian Committee for Medical Ethics, established under the Ministry of Health in 1995 and later renamed to the Lithuanian Bioethics Committee , the Office of the Ombudsperson for Academic Ethics and Procedures , the Pharmaceutical Marketing Ethics Commission and Research Council of Lithuania .

Regional research ethics committees are based at the universities with the tertiary medical education level. For the ethical supervision of biomedical research in the Kaunas region, the Kaunas Regional Biomedical Research Ethics Committee was established at the Kaunas Medical University in 2001. The Vilnius Regional Biomedical Research Ethics Committee was established at Vilnius University in 2008. Since 1997, hospital ethics committees have been established in most healthcare institutions .

The State Medicines Control Agency (SMCA) is Lithuanian governmental body responsible for approval of clinical trials regarding medicinal products .

Lithuania does not have a national code of research conduct, but it has several codes of ethics related to professional ethics in the medical field . Higher education institutions have their codes of academic ethics that encompass research ethics too. This approach allowed to ensure the autonomy of higher education institutions in developing and specifying their code of academic ethics. Furthermore, higher education institutions are encouraged to implement Guidelines for Ethical Review , developed and approved by the Ombudsperson for Academic Ethics and Procedures. Codes of ethics of all higher education institutions are publicly available on their websites. Also, the Lithuanian University Rectors’ Conference took the lead to develop Guidelines for Publication Ethics which were publicized in 2019 .

Office of the Ombudsperson for Academic Ethics and Procedures is responsible for handling allegations related to academic ethics and procedures in academia. The Office encourages higher education institutions to adhere to academic ethics and procedures, monitors their compliance with recommendations for approval, implementation, and monitoring codes of academic ethics, and cooperates in solving problems related to violations of academic ethics and procedures. The investigation is conducted upon received complaints or at the own motion. All decisions of the Ombudsperson are anonymised and publicly available online for a year within one month if they are not appealed to court .

The new Law on Protection of Whistle-blowers entered into force in 2019. The Law applies to both public and private sectors. Its aim is to create conditions for individuals, including employees, to confidentially provide information about a suspected infringement and to avoid negative consequences related to whistleblowing. Individuals can disclose information about a criminal or administrative violation, inappropriate conduct by a colleague and other infringements that might affect the public interest. According to this Law, a whistle-blower does not have to be sure that the information is correct or to have evidence. The whistle-blower will still be legally protected .

Bodies for RE+RI	Scope
The Lithuanian Bioethics Committee (LBC)	Provides advice to the governmental bodies, informs the general public about bioethical issues, and coordinates activities of the regional ethics committees. It issues approvals to conduct biomedical research and opinions for clinical trials on medicinal products, prepares legal documents related to the ethical review of research, submits amendments to them and consults on ethical and legal aspects of biomedical research.
Office of the Ombudsperson for Academic Ethics and Procedures of the Republic of Lithuania	Responsible for the handling of complaints and initiation of investigations on higher education institutions’ violations related to academic ethics and procedures. The Office is also responsible for undertaking preventive actions (e.g., training, consultancy).
The Pharmaceutical Marketing Ethics Commission	Supervises companies’ compliance with the Code of Ethics for governing pharmaceutical marketing and relations with health care professionals as well as relations between the pharmaceutical industry and patient organisations.
The Ethics Commission of the Scientific Council (Research Council of Lithuania)	Oversees research and knowledge exchange functions in relation to universities and institutes which includes providing block grant funding to the national research and education institutions, for research and development, developing and implementing national funding streams, supporting, and encouraging academic participation in EU Framework Programmes, overseeing the sustainability of the Higher Education research base in Lithuania, and promoting international collaborations.

Laws and regulations

A number of laws address RE and RI in Lithuania.

Law	Scope
The Republic of Lithuania Law on Health System	Regulates the national health system in Lithuania, its structure, limits of legal regulation of health care, health strengthening and health recovery, fundamentals of establishment of the scope of health activities, organization and management of individual and public health care, health promotion, conclusion of contracts regarding health activities, fundamentals of the liability for violations of legal norms of health activities, rights and duties of the residents and subjects of health activities.
Law on Health Care Institutions	Establishes the classification of healthcare institutions, principles of their founding, reorganisation, liquidation, operation, state regulation thereof, control measures, special features of administration and financing thereof, the nomenclature of institutions of the National Healthcare System of Lithuania, relations between healthcare institutions and patients and the principles of liability for violations of this Law.
Law on Medical Practice of the Republic of Lithuania	Regulates conditions related to the medical practice of doctor of medicine, doctor resident, family physician and a doctor specialist in the Republic of Lithuania.
Law on Ethics of Biomedical Research	Establishes requirements for biomedical research, terms and conditions of processing of human biological samples and managing personal health information for the purposes of biomedical research and activities of biobanks, terms and conditions of issuance of approvals to conduct biomedical research, supervision of conducting of biomedical research and liability of sponsors of biomedical research and investigators for damage resulting from the subject’s health impairment or death.
Pharmaceutical Law (2006, last amended in 2017)	Regulates pharmaceutical and other activity related to medicinal investigational products, veterinary pharmaceuticals, active and other medicinal substances as well as medicinal purpose products, veterinary pharmaceutical activity and also state management and control of the activity.
Republic of Lithuania Law on Dental Care (Assistance)	Regulates the right to engage in practice of doctor of dentistry, dental technician, oral hygienist and dental assistant professions, the procedure and control of performance of dental care (rendering of assistance), obligations and rights of dentists and dentist specialists, state regulation measures and grounds of liability.
The Law on Nursing Practice and Midwifery Practice of the Republic of Lithuania	Establishes the acquisition of professional qualification of the nurses responsible for general care and midwives, their practice conditions, rights, duties, and responsibilities.
Republic of Lithuania Law on Higher Education and Research	Establishes state regulation of higher education and research, principles of quality assurance in higher education and research, legal basis of establishment, termination and restructuring of higher education and research institutions, awarding and recognition of higher education qualifications and scientific degrees, management of higher education and research institutions, organization and supervision of their activities, rights and duties of the academic staff, research staff and students of higher education and research institutions, funding of higher education and research, principles of management, use and disposal of the assets of state higher education institutions.
Republic of Lithuania Law on Copyright and Related Rights	Regulates copyright in literary, scientific, and artistic works (copyright), the rights of performers, producers of phonograms, broadcasting organisations and producers of the first fixation of an audio-visual work (film) (related rights), the rights of makers of databases (sui generis rights), exercise, collective administration, and enforcement of copyright and related rights, as well as the exercise and enforcement of sui generis rights.
The Republic of Lithuania Code of Administrative Offences	Protects the Republic of Lithuania social order, property, social, economic, political, and individual citizens' rights, and freedoms, as well as companies, institutions and organizations rights and legitimate interests of the established order of administration, the state and public order. It also focuses on contract cheating.

Measures to promote good scientific practices and open science

RI training

No consistent training for all academia in this regard is provided; however, research ethics/integrity is encouraged to be taught for all doctoral students due to amended national regulation on doctoral studies . In addition to this, only a few initiatives are known. For example, Vilnius University offers General Competence Skills Training. The part of the training considers publication of scientific results and publication ethics as part of it . There was also an annual international conference ‘Shaping Ethics in Academia and Society’, organised during the period of 2016-2018, that served as an open arena for informal education of academia . Furthermore, the Office of the Ombudsperson for Academic Ethics and Procedures annually delivers customized training.

RI dialogue and communication

The National Bioethics committee is responsible for coordination and methodological assistance to Hospital Ethics Committees and to Regional Biomedical Research Ethics Committees . The Committee organises annual meetings with regional ethics committees to discuss current issues regarding academic ethics and ethics in science in Lithuania .

The Ombudsperson for Academic Ethics and Procedures organises twice per year a meeting with Committees of Academic Ethics to discuss their concerns and issues, e.g., while handling allegations within their higher education institutions, implementing the Office’s/Ombudsperson’s recommendations and guidelines .

Trust in Lithuanian public institutions is low due to corruptive practices. However, there is no evidence how the public perceives research integrity and whether they (mis)trust in science . Nevertheless, academia’s knowledge on research ethics is yet to be developed .  

Within the period of 2013-2017, the news portal www.delfi.lt published around 40 press articles about ethical infringements. Regarding (self-)plagiarism, authorship, contract cheating, fraud and conflict of interest.

RI incentives

The Ministry of Education and Science has signed 15 agreements with Lithuanian associations, companies, various institutions and higher education institutions to support student internship model in companies and institutions. In order to encourage companies to employ (more) scientists, the Ministry of Higher Education and Science in 2010 allocated EUR 17.4 million to support employment in enterprises .

Lithuania also offers Income Tax Relief for Investing in research and development . There is also Baltic Bonus - a scheme created to promote cooperation between the three Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) to participate in joint projects of Horizon 2020 .

Guidelines

Lithuania

A total of 3 guidelines were found. Add a Guideline.

• Lithuanian Implementation and Maintenance Recommendations for Higher Education Institutions (March 2022)
• Law on Academic Ethics and Procedures of the Republic of Lithuania (March 2022)
• Lithuanian Code of Ethics for Scientists (October 2020)

Andrijana Perković Paloš, Elsa Amin contributed to this report. Latest contribution was Oct 22, 2021