Sdílet
28. prosince 2022
The management of CEITEC BUT has now concluded the internal investigation regarding the case of alleged data fabrication in certain publications produced by the Smart Nanodevices research group headed by Prof. Vojtech Adam. We deeply regret the occurrence of this incident within CEITEC research and strongly condemn the unprofessional behaviour and scientific misconduct of some individuals within the group. These individuals responsible for manipulating research data were identified and their contracts were terminated because of their actions. The alleged articles were either retracted or errata were issued accordingly. However, in the process of investigation, it has been revealed that there was historical and remaining negligence in publishing practices, data management and further organizational and unresolved personal issues, to some degree inherited from the past group leaders. Taking all of this into account, we have decided the best course of action will be to terminate the research group of Prof. Adam as of the end of 2022. However, in line with the findings of the internal investigation of the ethical committee of the ERCEA agency regarding the scientific integrity of Prof. Adam himself, the ERC project will be allowed to continue to its natural end by the first quarter of 2023.
During the past few years, CEITEC has adopted a number of measures to ensure research integrity (Ethical Codex) and good research practices (Code of Research Conduct), which in summary ranks CEITEC among research organizations with an international standard of research management in place. As result of the recent event, CEITEC BUT will also adopt extra training in the areas of scientific transparency, research integrity and principles of open data policy for its staff and students.
CEITEC and Brno University of Technology strongly distance themselves from any unethical behaviour and scientific misconduct and will always take decisive action against any individual found guilty of scientific misconduct or unethical behaviour.