MMR and the development of UCL’s research governance framework

UCL has today published a paper - MMR and the development of a research governance framework in UCL - that sets out how the university's research governance framework has been updated to take account of institutional issues highlighted by the case of Andrew Wakefield. Wakefield was struck off the medical register by the GMC in 2010 following an investigation into allegations of serious professional misconduct relating to his research into a possible link between autism and MMR. The research, published in The Lancet in 1998, was conducted when Wakefield worked at the Royal Free Medical School, which merged with UCL later that year. Today's paper sets out the subsequent development of UCL's research governance framework and identifies lessons from the whole episode that may be of value to the wider HE sector. UCL's research governance framework has undergone significant revision and is now overseen by the UCL Research Governance Committee (RGC), which did not exist at the time of the Wakefield incident. The UCL RGC is chaired by UCL's Vice-Provost (Research) and has a broad membership including the Vice-Provosts Health and Enterprise, the senior officers responsible for Registry and Academic Services, HR, and Research Strategy and Governance, a lay member of UCL Council and six academic representatives. Its terms of reference include the co-ordination of the operation of research governance processes and oversight of the operation of UCL's procedure for investigating and resolving allegations of misconduct in academic research.