Responsible Conduct of Research File Summaries
The following file summaries provide a brief description of confirmed breaches of the Tri-Agency Framework: Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR Framework) that involved applications to, or funding by, the agencies or any tri-agency programs.
Each summary contains a distillation of the facts as established through an institutional inquiry or investigation, as well as a description of the recourse exercised by an institution and the relevant agency. Institutional recourse is not within the authority of or required by the agencies. Employment-related recourse measures imposed by institutions, such as suspensions or termination of employment, was at their own discretion. It is noted that such measures could be due to several issues and not solely based on a respondent's (R) breach of the RCR Framework.
As fact-finding bodies, institutions determine the validity of allegations. In rare cases where a respondent is receiving agency funds but is not associated with an eligible institution, the agency is responsible for making that determination.
When making decisions on agency recourse, the relevant agency takes into consideration factors such as institutional findings, the nature and impact of the breach, and any actions taken by an institution and respondent to remedy the breach.
It is the policy of the agencies that ineligibility to hold or apply for funding at one agency automatically results in ineligibility at the other two agencies, and all tri-agency programs. The same is true of decisions regarding ineligibility to serve on agency review committees. An agency decision to declare a respondent ineligible to hold or seek funding applies regardless of the respondent's role: applicant or co-applicant, collaborator, partner or any other capacity.
Final decisions on agency recourse are made by the president of the relevant agency, on the recommendations of the Secretariat and the Panel on Responsible Conduct of Research. If more than one agency is involved, the decision will be made jointly by the presidents of those agencies.
The following summaries are anonymized, in keeping with provincial and federal privacy legislation. Files which result in serious breaches may be disclosed to the public under the terms of the Consent to Disclosure of Personal Information, which has been a condition of applying for agency funding since November 2011. Files that are disclosed in an identifiable format pursuant to that policy are published in the Disclosures section of this website.
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