VERITY Recommendations for Fostering Trust in Science: Science Oversight and Protection Actors

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What is this about?

This resource provides recommendations for Science Oversight and Protection Actors—ethics committees, compliance bodies, impact assessment organisations, and monitoring funders—on how to foster trust in science. It highlights weaknesses in current oversight frameworks, such as outdated standards, underfunding, fragmented practices, and limited capacity for fast-moving fields like AI. The guidance stresses harmonised, binding standards, expanded ethics training, transparent disclosure, and inclusive engagement. Strengthening oversight ensures research integrity, accountability, and responsiveness, reinforcing science as credible and socially trusted.

Why is this important?

Science oversight and protection actors safeguard ethical, legal, and safety standards, making them pivotal to sustaining public trust in science. Yet many existing frameworks are outdated, fragmented, or under-resourced, leaving them unable to keep pace with the complexity of modern research. Rapidly advancing fields like AI, synthetic biology, and data-intensive science highlight the limitations of non-binding ethical guidance, weak monitoring systems, and incentives that reward output over responsibility. These weaknesses are compounded by gaps in training, uneven global standards, and institutional resistance to reform.

Undervaluation of critical accountability mechanisms—independent science journalism, open access platforms, and peer review—further undermines transparency. The rise of predatory publishing and disparities in research infrastructure widen inequalities, while trust-related oversight remains overly concentrated in health sciences, neglecting areas such as climate and digital technologies.

The recommendations outlined in this resource are essential for revising and harmonising oversight mechanisms across disciplines and borders. Binding standards, stronger ethics training, and adaptive review systems are needed to address emerging risks. Transparency through open access, funding disclosure, and accessible communication must be reinforced. By institutionalising inclusive engagement and collaborating with civil society and media, oversight actors can ensure accountability, foster credibility, and build societal trust in science.

For whom is this important?

Research Ethics CommitteesResearch Integrity OfficersAll stakeholders in science oversight

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