Call for research security to be embedded in sector's culture

Speakers at a major international event have stressed the importance of ensuring that research security is an integral part of research culture.

Speaking at the first European Network Conference on Research Security (ENCORS) event that took place in Delft on 26-27/05/2026, Peter Mathieson, Principal of the University of Edinburgh in the UK, said: "The only way of dealing with research security effectively is to embed it in the research culture."

Frans Geraedts, a philosopher and founder of the Foundation for Justice, Integrity and Anti-Corruption and at Governance Integrity International, said that universities had made the security of knowledge a new pillar of research rather than an integral part of the system. He said: "Your task is to create an ethos where knowledge security becomes a norm implied in being a scientist as such."

Compliance alone was not enough to address research security challenges, he said. He added that scientists and research institutions also needed "moral learning". Universities and research institutes often suffered from a kind of "mission overdrive", he…