TENK (Tutkimuseettinen neuvottelukunta, the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity) is the independent expert body that oversees research integrity policy in Finland. Unlike the centralized statutory investigation boards now operating in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, TENK does not itself adjudicate individual misconduct cases — Finland keeps preliminary investigation of alleged violations at the institutional level, with TENK setting the national framework those investigations must follow and weighing in through statements and advice. This guide covers TENK’s structure and mandate, its current 2025-2027 appointment term, its centerpiece Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) guideline, its newly published 2026 recommendation on artificial intelligence in research, and the 2026 round of Finland’s national open science monitoring, which TENK helps coordinate.
What TENK Is and How It Is Appointed
TENK was established by decree in 1991 (Decree 1347/1991) to handle ethical questions in scientific research and to advance research integrity and good research practice in Finland. It operates as an independent expert body of Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture (Opetus- ja kulttuuriministeriö, OKM), which formally appoints the board on a proposal from the scientific community itself — a structure intended to keep the board’s composition rooted in the research community rather than in ministerial appointees alone. TENK’s secretariat is housed within the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies, and the board meets a minimum of six times a year.
The 2025-2027 Mandate
The Ministry of Education and Culture appointed the current TENK board for the term running from 1 February 2025 to 31 December 2027. The sitting board is chaired by Kaarle Hämeri, Chancellor of the University of Helsinki, with Susanna Näreaho, Senior Advisor at Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, serving as Vice Chair. As with prior terms, the appointment covers a fixed multi-year period rather than a standing permanent office, which is why each new term is announced as a discrete news item on tenk.fi rather than treated as a continuation of the previous board’s composition.
What TENK Actually Does
TENK’s own account of its role groups its work into three areas:
- Strengthening research culture — integrity education and training, developing the processes institutions use to handle allegations of misconduct, and adapting international best practice (such as the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity) to the Finnish context.
- Quality assurance — producing national guidelines aimed at preventing misconduct across disciplines, coordinating ethical review in the human sciences, and representing Finland in international research-integrity networks.
- Supervision and oversight — compiling national statistics on integrity violations, issuing statements on institutional investigations into alleged misconduct, and providing advice in ambiguous or difficult cases.
The mechanism that ties this together is TENK’s guideline Responsible conduct of research and procedures for handling allegations of misconduct in Finland (the RCR guideline, most recently issued as the RI 2023 edition and published in Finnish, Swedish, and English). Finnish research organisations that have committed to the guideline agree to investigate suspected violations at the institutional level using TENK’s defined process; TENK itself does not run first-instance investigations, but it can be consulted for a statement and it tracks outcomes nationally. This is a materially different model from Finland’s Nordic neighbours — see how it compares to Denmark’s centralized Danish Board on Research Misconduct, Sweden’s Npof, and Norway’s Granskingsutvalget, all of which now run statutory, government-agency-level investigations of research misconduct rather than leaving first-instance fact-finding to the accused researcher’s own institution.
The 2026 AI Recommendation
In 2026 TENK published Artificial Intelligence in Research: Research Integrity and Ethical Principles, catalogued as Publication 2/2026 in TENK’s own publication series and issued as a PDF on tenk.fi. The recommendation is the deliverable of TENK’s dedicated AI-in-research-ethics project (funded through mid-2026 and coordinated by Iina Kohonen), which TENK describes as producing “a national recommendation on good research ethical practices in the use of AI” designed explicitly as a living document that will be revisited as the technology and its use in research evolve. A draft was circulated for public comment before finalisation, consistent with how TENK develops its other guidelines.
The recommendation is aimed at several audiences at once rather than researchers alone:
- Researchers, research organisations, and funders, who can use it to identify and reflect on the ethical questions raised by developing or using AI in research, and to minimise the ethical risks that follow.
- Research ethics committees, who can draw on it when assessing the ethical risk of study designs in which AI is itself the object of study, is being developed as a research output, or is being used as a tool within the research process.
TENK frames the recommendation as part of Finland’s broader co-regulatory framework for research — it sits alongside, rather than replaces, existing instruments such as the RCR guideline and Finland’s ethical review structures, extending them to cover AI-specific questions (for example, how AI-assisted analysis, drafting, or data generation should be disclosed, and where AI use crosses from a legitimate tool into a threat to research integrity or authorship accountability). This places TENK’s guidance in the same general territory as journal- and publisher-level AI disclosure policies, but framed specifically as a national research-integrity instrument rather than an editorial submission requirement.
The 2026 Open Science Monitoring Round
TENK also participates in coordinating Finland’s national monitoring of open science and research, run in partnership with Finland’s National Open Science and Research Steering Group and published in parallel on the avointiede.fi open-science portal. The 2026 monitoring round introduces several changes: new indicators reflecting recently adopted policy components, including recommendations on citizen science, on collaboration between research organisations and companies in RDI (research, development, and innovation) activities, and on open access to theses, research methods, and infrastructures; a new indicator tracking international developments, referencing the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA); and the removal of indicators that were fully or nearly fully achieved in the 2022 and 2024 monitoring rounds, intended to reduce the reporting burden on responding institutions. New monitoring questions were reviewed in an open workshop in early 2026, and the 2026 survey itself ran from 4 May to 15 June 2026. For a research administrator, the practical takeaway is that TENK’s remit now extends beyond misconduct and AI ethics into tracking institutional-level open science practice as a standing, recurring national exercise, not a one-off audit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does TENK investigate individual research misconduct cases?
Not directly, in the first instance. Finland’s model keeps preliminary investigation of alleged misconduct at the institutional level, following the process defined in TENK’s RCR guideline. TENK’s own role is to set that national framework, compile national statistics on outcomes, and issue statements or advice when consulted — a decentralized structure that differs from the single statutory investigation body Denmark, Norway, and Sweden each now use.
Who appoints TENK, and for how long?
Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture appoints TENK, acting on a proposal from the scientific community, for a fixed multi-year term. The board currently sitting was appointed for 1 February 2025 to 31 December 2027.
What is TENK’s 2026 AI recommendation actually for?
It is a national-level ethics recommendation — not a law or a journal policy — intended to help researchers, research organisations, funders, and research ethics committees recognise and manage the ethical risks of developing or using artificial intelligence in research. TENK publishes it as Publication 2/2026 and treats it as a living document to be updated over time.
How does TENK relate to Finland’s open science monitoring?
TENK coordinates alongside Finland’s National Open Science and Research Steering Group on the recurring national monitoring of open science and research practice, publishing monitoring materials on its own site in parallel with the avointiede.fi open-science portal. The 2026 round added indicators tied to citizen science, open access to theses and to research methods/infrastructure, and international developments including CoARA.
How does TENK compare to the other Nordic research-integrity bodies?
TENK is a guideline-setting and advisory body operating a decentralized, institution-led investigation model. By contrast, Denmark’s Danish Board on Research Misconduct, Sweden’s Npof, and Norway’s Granskingsutvalget are each centralized statutory bodies that investigate individual misconduct allegations directly, at the national level, rather than delegating first-instance fact-finding to the accused researcher’s own institution.
For the underlying concepts referenced throughout — FFP (fabrication, falsification, plagiarism), the responsible-conduct-of-research process, and how institutional misconduct handling generally works — see CASRAI’s Research Integrity Fundamentals guide, and the broader Research Integrity & Compliance hub.
