Luxembourg National Research Fund

Research integrity

Grantees must carry out research in compliance with applicable national, European and international law and in compliance with the ethical principles and standards of research and scientific ethics, in accordance with the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity and the FNR Research Integrity guidelines.

Grantees are obliged to declare any well-founded suspicion of research misconduct occurring in the framework of FNR-funded research to the Luxembourg Agency for Research Integrity (LARI) with a notification to FNR, as soon as possible.

The documents below provide a guide for good research conduct in submitting and executing FNR-funded research projects and aim to help prevent misconduct.

• FNR Research Integrity Guidelines
• European Code of Conduct
• Singapore Statement
• Montreal Statement
• Science Europe: Seven Reasons to Care About Research Integrity

Ethics clearance

Research activities that raise ethical issues must comply with additional requirements set forth by ethics committees. Prior to commencing any task raising ethical issues, Grantees must have obtained all approvals or other mandatory documents necessary for the implementation of the task, including from any ethics committee (national or institutional) or other bodies such as data protection authorities. These documents should be kept on file and presented to the FNR upon request.

Research involving human participants and/or data

Grantees must pay particular attention to the principle of proportionality, the right to privacy, the right to the protection of personal data, the right to the physical and mental integrity of persons, the right to non-discrimination, to need to ensure environmental protection and high levels of human health protection.

Research involving human subjects needs approval from the National Research Ethics Committee (CNER).

According to the World Health Organization, the registration of all interventional trials is a scientific, ethical and moral responsibility. Clinical trials that fall within the scope of FNR-funded research must therefore be prospectively registered on a registry listed on the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP). In line with the Declaration of Helsinki 2013, any clinical trial must be registered before the first subject receives the first medical intervention in the trial.

• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
• Declaration of Helsinki : Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects
• National legislation regarding medical research involving human subjects

Dual use research

Grantees must ensure that FNR-funded research is exclusively focused on civilian applications. Derogations from this principle must be explicitly authorized by the FNR and can only be granted after consultation with the relevant national authorities.

Human cloning and human embryonic cells

Grantees must ensure that research activities funded by FNR do not aim at:

• human cloning for reproductive purposes;
• modifying the genetic heritage of human beings in such a way as to render these modifications heritable;
• creating human embryos solely for the purpose of research or for obtaining stem cells, including by somatic cell nuclear transfer;
• the destruction of human embryos (for example, to obtain stem cells).

Animal research

Research involving animal experiments has made important contributions to advancements in life sciences and medicine, which have improved the health of human beings and animals.

Under the strict conditions set out in our guidelines and respecting the legal framework, FNR-funded research can involve animal experimentation in Luxembourg if the expected outcomes are beneficial and compelling, if rigorous animal welfare standards are respected and if no alternative experimentation methods exist.

International research collaborations supported by the FNR are expected to be carried out in the same spirit as the national legislation as well as being compliant with any local legislation and ethics.

Competing interests

Grantees must take all measures to prevent any situation in which the impartial and objective implementation FNR-funded research could be compromised for family or affective reasons, political or national affinity, economic interest or any other direct or indirect conflict of interest. They must formally notify the FNR without delay of any situation constituting or likely to lead to a conflict of interest and immediately take all necessary measures to remedy this situation. The FNR may verify that the measures taken are appropriate and may require that further measures be taken within a specified period.

Researchers

In 2005, the European Commission adopted the European Charter for Researchers and a Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. These two documents are key elements in the EU’s policy to make research an attractive career, which is a vital feature of its strategy to stimulate economic and employment growth. The Charter and Code of Conduct gives individual researchers the same rights and obligations wherever they may work throughout the EU. We expect that Grantees comply with and implement the provisions of The Charter and Code of Conduct.

Doctoral training

The National Quality Framework for Doctoral Training formulates the FNR’s expectations with respect to the management, quality and academic standards of the training of FNR-funded PhD candidates. It sets out requirements in the following areas:

• Doctoral Research Environment and Management
• Recruitment and Admission into Doctoral Training
• Supervision
• Skills Training and Professional Development
• Dissemination
• Good Practice in Research
• Thesis Assessment Committee and Procedures
• National Quality Framework for Doctoral Training

FNR Gender Equality Plan

We expect all participants involved in FNR-funded research to commit to equity, diversity and inclusion in their working practices.

Research Publications – Open Access

Grantees are expected to publish the results from FNR-funded research within a reasonable timeframe. These publications must comply with FNR’s Open Access Policy.

In the framework of the National Policy on Open Access adopted in 2015, the FNR has made it a requirement that publications resulting from FNR-funded research are made open access. In addition, the FNR has set up the Open Access Fund to provide funding for publication costs. In 2018, FNR joined cOAlition S, a global initiative including prestigious organizations such as the European Commission, UKRI, the Wellcome Trust, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Health Organization, Howard Hugues Medical Institute, and many national research funders that have agreed to implement the 10 principles of Plan S in a coordinated way. These principles are also implemented by the European Commission, including the European Research Council, in the framework programme Horizon Europe. Thus, FNR’s Open Access policy is maximally aligned with the European Commission’s Open Access policy.

• FNR Open Access Policy (updated 2023)
• National Policy on Open Access 2015
• Plan S

Research data

FNR wishes to ensure that the outcomes of the research we fund are applied for the public good. We therefore expect researchers to maximise the availability of research data with as few restrictions as possible. The key principle that applies is “as open as possible, as closed as necessary”. Research data should be deposited in a trusted repository in such a way that the data are as findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) as possible.

Grantees are expected to ensure appropriate stewardship and curation of research data. To this end, FNR requires a Data Management Plan (DMP) to be drafted for all projects accepted for funding. At the start of the project, a template is made available on FNR’s Grant Management Platform. This document can be accessed and should be continuously updated during the entire project period.

• FNR Policy on Research Data Management
• Data Management Plan Template
• Science Europe Practical Guide to the International Alignment of Research Data Management

Public outreach

The FNR attaches great importance to the communication of scientific results to the general public and the media. Grantees are expected to highlight the work and results of FNR-funded research to the general public and the press, on their own initiative or at the request of the FNR. Any communication or dissemination activity must use factually accurate information. Before engaging in a communication or dissemination activity expected to have a significant media impact, the Grantees must inform the FNR, which may request to be associated with this activity in an appropriate form.

Acknowledgement of FNR funding

All communication activities of Grantees related to FNR-funded research (including media relations, conferences, seminars, information material, such as brochures, leaflets, posters, presentations, etc., under electronic form, via traditional or social media, etc.), dissemination activities and any infrastructure, equipment, vehicles, supplies or major results funded by the grant must acknowledge FNR support and display the FNR logo necessarily associated by following the FNR Communication Guidelines.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) 

The present guidelines of the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) provide applicants and those involved in the review, evaluation, and decision-making process with a framework on how to deal with generative AI when preparing and assessing FNR grant applications. 

Intellectual property and its commercialisation

Being finalised – coming soon