The 3^rd INTEGRITY Annual Consortium Meeting was held in January 2021 as a fully online event, where the latest developments of the project were presented and discussed.

A year ago the 11 INTEGRITY Consortium partners were discussing, in the beautiful city of Vilnius (Lithuania), the latest project’s achievements and planning the development of the innovative INTEGRITY teaching tools (WP4). Now, a year later (2021), we could not be prouder of what we have achieved during this challenging year!

Like everywhere in the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought several challenges for our project. Yet, with challenges also comes opportunities, “if only we are brave enough to see it, if only we are brave enough to be it”, as so aptly by Amanda Gorman in her poem speech at USA Joe Biden’s Presidential Inauguration! In INTEGRITY, we had to redefine our initial plans to collect survey data on students’ perceptions and needs in academic integrity (WP2) and to design flexible, interactive and engaging teaching tools, suitable for both online and face-to-face environment (WP4). We also embraced the new way to meet…online! So, although this year we could not meet in person in Ljubljana, our University of Ljubljana partners welcomed us with an amazing video of the beautiful and vibrant city of Ljubljana.

This could not have been a better way to start our Annual INTEGRITY Consortium e-Meeting. Highlights of the three days of meetings (11^th; 20^th and 22^nd January 2021) include a sneak peek into the results from the European survey study, results which are now being written up for publications to come during 2021, and which will already feed into the development of teaching tools. Altogether, this work will help professors and educational institutions to re-think and re-shape current ways to teach and promote academic and research integrity, and to critically reflect on the challenges that current practices might pose to science.

Another highlight of the e-Meeting was the presentation of the INTEGRITY teaching tools that are being developed for the different target groups (high schools, bachelor students and PhD students) by three different teams of Consortium partners. This was by far, one of the most expected moments of the e-Meeting, as it was the first time that all Consortium partners could see the set of different tools and pedagogical approaches that the teams have been working on during this year. At the end of the presentations, the excitement was visible, and discussions were made on the next steps to be taken, for testing and promoting the teaching tools in each country. Plans have been settled and four SPOCs (Small Private Online Courses) for PhD students are currently announced and taking place through our site. Additionally, Ireland will soon test the high school modules, during an Open Mind Studio event organized by Science Gallery Dublin, which will gather online high school students and their teachers that will facilitate the modules and where we will collect feedback to make any necessary changes into our modules. The “Integrity Case Generator” is a narrative teaching tool developed to undergraduate students that provides 5 cases for students to reflect on Research Integrity issues. This online tool will soon be undergoing its first tests in Copenhagen.

In the last day of the e-Meeting, discussions were made regarding how to ensure that the teaching tools are used beyond the lifetime of the project. Also, plans were discussed for how to best run the European Student Convention as a fully online event, and where the aim is to test our tools with groups of students from different countries. This event will be co-organised by INTEGRITY with the Path2integrity project, so that the synergies and complementarities between the two projects can be harnessed. Last, but not the least, the preliminary results of the nudging tests (WP6) conducted by our University of Geneva partners were presented. These tests tried to understand if certain applied nudges were capable to promote students’ participation and interest on teaching courses.

At the end of the e-Meeting, we could not be prouder of how much we have achieved this year, regardless of the challenging times we are all living. We can proudly say that we were “brave enough” to turn challenges into opportunities and we look forward to the next final months of the project. Although being physically distant, we felt more closer than never and the smiles, without masks, remind us that there is definitely light in the future ahead!

Project consortium members