Implementation of the Guidelines
All scientific institutions (especially higher education institutions and non-HEI research institutions) must implement levels one and two of guidelines 1 to 19 in the DFG Code of Conduct Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice in a legally binding manner in accordance with the organisational form of the institution. Compliance with this Code is a prerequisite for receiving DFG funding; institutions that do not implement the guidelines are not eligible for funding. When submitting funding proposals to the DFG and in accepting funding, applicants and grant recipients agree to adhere to the principles of good scientific practice as stipulated in DFG funding guidelines and the funding guidelines of programmes implemented by the DFG.
The Code entered into force on 1 August 2019. For those scientific institutions that had already implemented the relevant requirements in the DFG white paper Safeguarding Good Scientific Practice in a binding manner, there was a transition period for implementing the Code, which ended on 31 July 2021. If an institution cannot implement the guidelines in a legally binding manner on its own due to its organisational structure or its particular nature or other circumstances, there are various options for implementing and acknowledging the Code. Institutions to which this applies may associate themselves with an institution that has implemented the DFG Code and ac knowledge its implementation of the Code as binding for them (the cooperation model). If the institution cannot find a cooperation partner, it can contact the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK), which will arrange a partner institution that is willing to act in allegations of scientific misconduct in individual cases. In matters relating to ombudspersons, the institutions concerned may contact the Committee for Research Integrity in Germany (OWID). They will implement the principles of the Code accordingly.