Research governance

Our research governance sets these standards, enhancing ethical and scientific quality and good practice. We seek to operate an open research environment, enabling access to, sharing and replication of our research to ensure maximum value.

Research ethics

Our research ethics are informed by the worldwide set of principles set out in our Code of Research Practice, governing the way our researchers interact with their subjects and data, as well as how they manage the research process.

Ethics Committee

This is overseen by our Ethics Committee, which exists to safeguard the rights, safety, dignity and wellbeing of research participants – people and animals. They will review research proposals and decide whether the research is ethical and therefore can be undertaken. If it isn’t, they will suggest amendments.

Research sponsors

Our committees will always be independent of our research sponsors (the organisations responsible for the management and undertaking of the research), funders and the researchers themselves. This enables them to put the participants at the centre of their decision-making.

We expect everybody undertaking academic research with us to abide by our standards of rigour and integrity, as outlined in our Code of Research Practice. This will facilitate confidence in findings and adoption of recommendations in real-world practice.

Hartpury Code of Research Practice

Our annual statement on research integrity describes the steps we take to meet the principles of the UK Concordat for Research Integrity.

Research integrity statement and annual report 2020-21

Research Integrity statement and annual report 2021-22

Research Integrity statement and annual report 2022-23

Research Integrity statement and annual report 2023-24

Research Integrity statement 2022-23

Our Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee, Research Degree Committee and Ethics Committee provide the governance framework through which we deliver our commitment to research integrity.

Useful documents

Research ethics at Hartpury University

Hartpury University promotes the highest standards in its research and teaching practice and conducts world-leading applied research across the agriculture, animal, equine, veterinary nursing and sport and exercise sectors. Our research and knowledge exchange directly informs taught programmes and real-world practice.

Research Ethics Statement

Code of practice

Our Code of Research Practice is an essential reference tool to support our researchers and partners to conduct research of the highest quality.

Hartpury Code of Research Practice 2023