Excellence in research is achieved through a collective process energised by the faculty and students of a university. The AKU faculty and students are committed to pursue their task by working within a framework based on high sets of ethical principles.
The research activities are steered and regulated through guidelines which ensure protection against violations of human rights and misrepresentations of data whether intentionally or unintentionally. All research work should maintain high standards in terms of integrity, responsibility and without prejudice to any ethnic or religious group.
In order to preserve the University's reputation for high standards of scholarly integrity AKU has developed policies that define offenses like fabrication of data, plagiarism, abuse of confidentiality, dishonesty in publication, intellectual property violations, claim to authorship and contribution and research misconduct and how to address them.
The policies undergo robust review from time to time and approved by the University Research Council.
Authorship Policy
Policy on Intellectual Property Rights
University Policy on Faculty and Staff Publications
Policy on Research Misconduct
Policy on Code of Good Research Practice and Access to Patient Data
Policy on Mechanism for Change of Principal Investigator for Ongoing Research Project
Policy for Submitting Extramural Grant Applications
Policy on Research Ethics Review
Policy on Responding to Research Disruption
Policy on Use of Animals for Scientific Purposes
Policy for Adverse Event and Serious Adverse Event
The Aga Khan University recognizes extramural grants as an important source of funding to support research, academic programmes and student sponsorships. The policy and related procedures have been prepared to provide Standard Operating Procedures related to financial monitoring of extramural grants.
AKU's Guidelines concerning National Institutes of Health (NIH) Financial Conflict of Interest (FCOI) Policy are aligned with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Grant Policy Statement 42 CFR 50.601. It summarizes the FCOI regulation to ensure that the design, conduct, and reporting of NIH-funded research are free from bias caused by FCOI.
To comply with NIH regulations, AKU has implemented Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) aligned with the above guidelines. These SOPs require all NIH-funded investigators to submit timely and accurate disclosure of Significant Financial Interests (SFI) using the online SFI Disclosure Form.
NIH regulations require AKU to ensure access to relevant information upon written request regarding SFIs that are disclosed to AKU. If you would like to request information about an FCOI identified for any investigator associated with an NIH award, please send your request via email to research.compliance@aku.edu.
