Search
Close this search box.

Annual OEAWI Conference 2023

United for Scientific Integrity

09. May 2023

Annual OEAWI Conference 2023: United for Scientific Integrity

Scientific integrity, raising awareness for responsible research practices and how to handle communication related to research misconduct – these were some of the topics discussed during the annual conference of the OEAWI, the Austrian agency for research integrity, on May 9th in Vienna. On the premises of the Austrian science fund FWF, OEAWI-members attended lectures and discussions centered around the conference theme “Responsible Research in Austria”.

United for scientific integrity: Isidoros Karatzas (European Commission), Federal Minister for Education, Science and Research Martin Polaschek, Krista Varantola (ALLEA), Sabine Seidler (uniko), Sabine Chai (ÖAWI) and Christof Gattringer (FWF) opened the OEAWI annual conference 2023.

Christof Gattringer, chair of the OEAWI board and president of the Austrian science fund FWF, greeted the attendees to the first event of its kind since the founding of the OEAWI and highlighted the importance of good scientific practice for universities and the scientific system as a whole. The annual OEAWI conference is meant to establish an intensive exchange of knowledge and practices between member organizations..

 

Sabine Chai, managing director of the OEAWI since 2022, highlighted the uniqueness and importance of the OEAWI being founded as an association. “We are an integrity club, so to speak, in which members discuss questions related to responsible research practices in Austria, and, when necessary, investigate issues responsibly.”.

 

Martin Polaschek, Federal Minister for Education, Science and Research, said in his opening statement: “To increase trust in science, it has to prove its trustworthiness time and time again. Ethical standards in science are nothing new, nonetheless we have decided to take further steps in the area of “Academic Integrity”, i.e. the observation of good scientific practice in teaching, in order to further increase trust. One important step was the founding of the OEAWI in 2008, which set the course for the creation of a central organization for scientific integrity. Last year, the BMBWF (Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Research) also joined the OEAWI as a member, to highlight the importance of cooperation in this area. Because the systemic establishment of standards for good scientific practice involves much more than the prominent cases of plagiarism often featured in the media. It includes prevention efforts, awareness building, and training courses, as well as consultations, information exchange and networking events.”

 

The discussion around integrity in research is often dominated by quick headlines, said Sabine Seidler, president of Universities Austria (uniko) and rector of TU Wien who is also a board member of the OEAWI. Responsible research requires more than following rules, Seidler continued. It’s equally important to create and nurture an appropriate system of values on a global level.

 

In the following keynote speeches, Isidoros Karatzas, Head of the Research Ethics and Integrity Sector of the European Commission, Krista Varantola, past ALLEA board member, and Nikolaus Forgó, expert on Austrian law in the OEAWI commission, provided insights into the topic of responsible research from national and international perspectives. Break-out sessions provided opportunities to the approximately 80 participants to further discuss issues such as “responsible communication”, “prevention and training” and “active community-building”.

AM_quadrat
Law

Prof.
Regina E. Aebi-Müller

Deputy Chair of the Commission

Faculty of Law, University of Lucerne – Switzerland Regina E. Aebi-Müller graduated in law from the University of Bern and was admitted to the bar of the Canton of Bern in 1997. This was followed by a doctorate with a focus on family and inheritance law. In 2005, she completed her habilitation on the system of the protection of personality in civil law. Since the same year, she has been a full professor of private law and comparative private law at the University of Lucerne. Her research focuses on medical law, family law, the law of persons (capacity to act, protection of personality, law of associations and foundations) and the law of succession. She has authored numerous publications, partly in the context of externally funded research projects, and is a member of national and international professional societies. Since 2016, she has been co-editor of the renowned «Berner Kommentar». Regina E. Aebi-Müller has been a member of the Central Ethics Committee of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences since June 2017 and a member of the Expert Committee of Alzheimer Switzerland since 2019. She was a Research Councillor at the Swiss National Science Foundation from 2014 to 2021 and Vice-President of this division from 2017 to 2021. She was also a member and Vice President of the Commission for Scientific Integrity of the Swiss National Science Foundation from 2017 to 2021. Since 2020, Regina E. Aebi-Müller has been Prorector for Personnel and Professorships at the University of Lucerne and, a spart of that position, President of the University Equal Opportunities Commission. Since 2011, she has been an investigator in cases of sexual harassment. From 2007 to 2011, she was Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Lucerne.
Elisabeth Haslinger-Baumann_420x420_watermarked_centered

FH-Prof. Mag. Dr. Elisabeth Haslinger-Baumann

FH Campus Wien

 

Since 2022, Vice Rector for Research and Development and member of the executive board of FH Campus Wien. Member of the ethics commission of FH Campus Wien.


Between 2014 and 2022, she developed, implemented and managed the Competence Center for Applied Nursing Research at FH Campus Wien, and taught in the Department for Applied Nursing Research. She developed the strategic direction of the research center and conceptualized and led application-focused and interdisciplinary
projects in national and international contexts. Her research focuses are in the fields of Active and Assisted Living, Digitalization in health and nursing, as well as Theory-Practice-Transfer. From 1998 to 2013, she was part of the research institute of the Vienna Red Cross (which she led for 1.5 years) where she established nursing research with a focus on evidence-based nursing in mobile and inpatient care.


Haslinger-Baumann studied Philosophy with a focus on ethics as well as Political Science with a focus on social policy, both at the University of Vienna. She holds a Doctorate in Nursing Science with a focus on research applications from UMIT – Private University for health sciences, medical informatics and technology in Hall, Tyrol.


Many years of experience as certified health- and nursing professional in Austria (Vienna) and abroad (Nepal, India, Columbia, Ecuador)


Married,
three children.

Skip to content