The Academy supports several declarations, concordats or similar joint statements of principles.
There are two ways in which we support such statements:
As a supporter - Being a supporter of a declaration/concordat means that we agree with its principles, and may choose to implement all or some of them. We will also commit to promoting the values, guidelines or principles to our awardees and through the Academy Fellowship.
As a signatory - Being a signatory of a declaration/concordat means that we are obliged to implement its principles and will change our practices where necessary to actively align with its commitments.
Notes for Academy award holders
- When the Academy becomes a signatory or supporter of a declaration/concordat, this is reflected in your grant conditions and a communication is sent to you to inform you of the change.
- Whether we are a signatory or supporter of any given declaration/concordat, if our alignment with it has an impact on how AMS award holders should conduct their research, a document describing this is made available on our website. There is currently one such brief (available for download on the right side of this page), which relates to the Concordat on Openness on Animals in Research.
You can download the concordats and declarations referenced in the tabs below from the right side of this page.
If you have any questions, please contact the Academy’s Director of Communications, Nick Hillier (nick.hillier@acmedsci.ac.uk; 020 3176 2154).
The Academy is a signatory of the following concordats/declarations:
- The Concordat on Openness on Animal Research
AMS award holders, please read the brief on how this signatory affects your award.
This Concordat outlines best practise for being more open about animal research. The four commitments that signatories make are to: be clear about when, how and why animals are used in research; enhance communications with the media and the public about research using animals; be proactive in providing opportunities for the public to find out about research using animals; and report on progress annually and share experiences.
- UK clinical academic training in medicine and dentistry: principles and obligations
This document sets out principles and obligations of all UK institutions and clinical trainees in receipt of nationally competitive funding for clinical academic research training.
- Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA)
DORA recognises the need to improve the ways in which the outputs of scientific research are evaluated. It sets out 18 recommendations for change in scientific culture, particularly in relation to the use of Journal Impact Factors to assess scientists for decisions on funding, appointment and promotion. We have made changes to our processes to align with this declaration, e.g. an extra question was added to our grant application forms to give applicants a chance to explain how three of their publications have impacted their field of research - this is to avoid impact being indirectly assessed by correlating with the impact factor of the journal within which it is published.