On Friday, 16 December 2022, the Irish Higher Education Authority (HEA) launched the revised ‘HEA Principles of Good Practice in Research within Irish Higher Education Institutions’. The Principles, which are part of the HEA’s Annual Governance Statements, act as high-level research good practice guidelines. Treated as a living document, the Principles have been updated with minor changes and new additions to reflect new policies, international developments relating to good practice in research, to take account of changes in the research landscape since their first publication in February 2020, and to incorporate suggestions agreed with stakeholders. 

Open research continues to be a priority for the Irish higher education system. The revised Principles specifically call out the work of the National Open Research Forum (NORF) and the recently published National Action Plan for Open Research 2022-2030 as fundamental to the advancement of the Irish Open Research agenda.

New additions to the document include two new elements of good practice ‘Gender Equality and Inclusiveness’ and ‘Research and Sustainability’, bringing the total number of Principles to nine:

1. Excellence in research and academic freedom;
2. Research integrity and ethics;
3. Open research;
4. Intellectual property and knowledge transfer;
5. Researcher development;
6. Research project and programme management;
7. Dignity and respect;
8. Gender equality and inclusiveness;
9. Research and sustainability.

Read more about the updated Principles and review the document on the HEA website here.