Research integrity training is structured instruction — self-paced e-learning, live workshops, or institutional modules — that teaches researchers the principles, UK governance frameworks, and practical skills to plan, conduct, and publish research honestly. UK provision splits three ways: UKRIO’s subscriber-only course covers national governance and practice; Epigeum’s licensed modules cover the full research lifecycle in tiers; and bespoke programmes, such as UCL’s framework, embed both into locally mandated pathways.
Research integrity training is the compliance and capability layer underneath every institution’s research governance framework. As of July 2026, most UK research offices choose between three delivery models, and their content, format and licensing terms differ enough to matter for both compliance and cost.
Contents
- What does research integrity training actually cover?
- What does UKRIO’s training include?
- What do Epigeum’s course modules cover?
- How does a bespoke institutional module like UCL’s differ?
- UKRIO vs Epigeum vs institutional modules: compared
- Research integrity training: answered
- Choosing or benchmarking a programme
What does research integrity training actually cover?
Despite different providers, UK research integrity training converges on a shared core curriculum. This reflects the Universities UK Concordat to Support Research Integrity, to which most UK universities are signatories, committing institutions to embed integrity training rather than leaving it to individual departments.
- Principles of research integrity — honesty, rigour, transparency and accountability
- Research misconduct — recognising and avoiding fabrication, falsification and plagiarism
- Data management — collection, storage, protection and responsible sharing
- Authorship and publication ethics — fair attribution and conflict-of-interest disclosure
- Ethical approval — human participants, animal welfare, and human tissue governance
- Conflicts of interest — personal, financial and professional
Providers diverge on how deeply they localise this curriculum to UK governance structures, how they tier content by career stage, and whether training bundles into wider research-support services. That divergence is the practical decision point for a research office comparing options.
What does UKRIO’s training include?
The UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO) is an independent advisory body, and its online course centres on the UK’s specific research governance environment rather than a generic international curriculum. Access is restricted: UKRIO states its online courses are hosted “exclusively for its subscriber organisations,” so an institution needs an active subscription before staff can enrol.
UKRIO’s core self-paced course, Introduction to Research Integrity, is structured into four modules:
- Principles of research integrity
- The UK’s research integrity guidelines, principles and governance frameworks
- Research integrity in practice — research ethics, data collection and management, open research, competing interests, collaborative working, authorship and the implications of artificial intelligence
- Fostering a culture of research integrity
Beyond the self-paced course, UKRIO runs live webinars and bespoke workshops on publication ethics and Concordat implementation, aimed at a broad audience from early-career researchers to research-integrity-office staff and senior leadership.
What do Epigeum’s course modules cover?
Epigeum is a commercial e-learning publisher whose research integrity modules are licensed by universities rather than sold directly to individual researchers. Its curriculum splits into core modules — good research conduct, irresponsible research practices, planning and managing research, data selection and analysis, scholarly publication, and professional responsibilities — plus specialist modules covering conflicts of interest, human and animal research, intellectual property, and export controls.
Epigeum’s defining feature is tiering by experience: a comprehensive “Full” version for postgraduate researchers, a shorter “Refresher” version for staff with prior training, and a dedicated pathway for principal investigators focused on leadership, research culture and ethical global collaboration. Content is interactive — scenario-based activities, video interviews and quizzes rather than static text.
Licensing terms shift over time: the University of Warwick’s research integrity pages confirm its Epigeum-hosted programme moves to Warwick’s own Moodle platform on 31 August 2026, with no change to the Full, Supplementary and Refresher content, but with certificates on the old platform becoming inaccessible after that date unless downloaded first. Warwick is adding three new courses at migration — Leadership and Research Culture, Research Design and Planning, and Ethical and Global Collaboration — illustrating how institutions increasingly rehost licensed Epigeum content on their own learning-management systems rather than routing researchers through a third-party portal.
How does a bespoke institutional module like UCL’s differ?
UCL takes a framework-based approach rather than adopting one external course wholesale. Its Research Integrity Training Framework lets researchers self-assess training needs and follow a pathway relevant to their career stage and discipline, combining three components:
- A mandatory self-paced eLearning course, Research Integrity, required for postgraduate research students and recommended for new research staff, explaining what integrity means for UCL research specifically
- Introduction to Research Support and Integrity, a live course for postgraduate research students bundling integrity training with data protection, research data management and library services
- Discipline-specific and faculty-level sessions, including localised formats such as a scenario-based “Dilemma Game” for departments with distinct ethical challenges
This model treats research integrity training as an entry point into the wider research-support ecosystem rather than a standalone module — researchers are pointed to specific institutional contacts as part of the training itself, something neither UKRIO’s nor Epigeum’s generic content replicates without local customisation.
UKRIO vs Epigeum vs institutional modules: compared
Format, depth, tiering and access model are the practical differences a research office needs to weigh between the three approaches.
| Provider | Format | Core content focus | Audience tiering | Access model |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UKRIO | Self-paced online course plus live webinars and bespoke workshops | UK-specific governance frameworks, practical application, AI and culture | Broad — early-career researchers through senior leadership and research-integrity office staff | UKRIO institutional subscription required |
| Epigeum | Suite of e-learning modules (Core + Specialist) | Full international research lifecycle: planning, data, publication, IP, export control | Tiered — Full (postgraduate researchers), Refresher, PI/leadership pathway | Licensed by institution; often rehosted on internal LMS (e.g. Moodle) |
| Institutional (e.g. UCL) | Framework combining mandatory eLearning, live courses, and faculty-level sessions | Institution-specific policy embedded in the wider research-support ecosystem | Self-assessed pathway by career stage and discipline | Built into institutional onboarding; free to enrolled researchers and students |
Most UK universities run a hybrid: an Epigeum or UKRIO licence supplies the baseline curriculum, and the institution’s own research integrity office layers on mandatory policy briefings, discipline-specific sessions and local reporting routes — closer to UCL’s model than to a single off-the-shelf course.
Research integrity training: answered
What is research integrity training?
Research integrity training is structured instruction — delivered via online modules, live workshops, or institutional courses — that teaches researchers the principles, governance frameworks, and practical skills needed for honest, rigorous, and accountable research. It typically covers misconduct prevention, data management, authorship ethics, and conflict-of-interest disclosure, and is increasingly a funder eligibility expectation.
Is research integrity training mandatory in the UK?
There is no single UK-wide legal mandate, but the Concordat to Support Research Integrity, published by Universities UK, commits signatory institutions to embedding integrity training. Most UK universities require staff and postgraduate researchers delivering or supervising research to complete it before they begin.
What is the difference between UKRIO and Epigeum training?
UKRIO is an independent advisory body whose online course focuses on UK-specific governance frameworks and practical, sector-wide guidance, available only via institutional subscription. Epigeum is a commercial e-learning publisher whose tiered modules cover the full international research lifecycle, licensed by universities and frequently rehosted on their own learning platforms.
Do funders require research integrity training for every grant?
Most UK funders, including UKRI, expect institutions to demonstrate structured integrity training as part of their commitment to the Concordat to Support Research Integrity, but individual grant applications rarely mandate a named course. Instead, institutions certify that their research integrity office enforces completion as part of onboarding and annual compliance checks.
Choosing or benchmarking a programme
For a research office reviewing its programme, the choice is rarely “UKRIO or Epigeum” in isolation — it is whether to licence a ready-made curriculum, build a bespoke framework, or blend the two, as most UK institutions now do.
- Licence UKRIO or Epigeum for a defensible, externally validated baseline curriculum, where capacity favours subscribing over building.
- Build a bespoke framework where disciplines carry materially different risk (clinical trials, human tissue, export-controlled research) that a generic module cannot address, following UCL’s self-assessed pathway.
- Plan for platform migration — Warwick’s 2026 move from Epigeum’s hosted platform to internal Moodle shows licensed content is not permanently portable, so certificate continuity needs an explicit policy.
The direction of travel is clear: generic online modules are becoming the entry-level baseline, while institutions differentiate through discipline-specific, framework-based training layered on top — the model UCL has already adopted. Research offices benchmarking their research administration function should expect this hybrid, including localised authorship and publication-ethics content, to become the sector norm.
