Integrity

Deliberation and Reflections

Meise Botanic Garden is a tourist attraction and a Flemish Scientific Institution (VWI). The mission of the Botanic Garden is to discover, research, and protect the plant kingdom and to use this knowledge to build a sustainable future. In doing so, we are guided by our basic values: together for one mission, correct service, respect for diversity, open communication, an eye for sustainability, and a commitment to excellence. Meise Botanic Garden expects all its employees to put these values into practice in their own jobs: after all, we are all working together on the mission of Meise Botanic Garden and we want to do this with integrity and transparency. For this reason, Meise Botanic Garden has its own code of ethics and an explicit integrity policy.  

Scientific integrity

Meise Botanic Garden stands for professional and honest scientific research and therefore subscribes to the principles of the ethical code for scientific research in Belgium and 'The European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity'. These codes encourage researchers to observe care, prudence, reliability, verifiability, independence, and impartiality in scientific research. In addition to these two codes, the Botanic Garden has drawn up guidelines concerning authorship of scientific publications, and we work on transparent registration of scientific data in the framework of the 'Flemish Open Science Board' (FOSB).

The Committee for Scientific Integrity (CWI) of the Botanic Garden provides a framework for maintaining and promoting scientific integrity by providing information and stimulating good research practices. The CWI provides advice and deals with complaints regarding breaches of scientific integrity. The independent scientific council of the Botanic Garden acts as CWI. At the Flemish level, the Botanic Garden has joined the Flemish Commission for Scientific Integrity (VCWI), recognising it as a second advisory body.

Integrity Desk

Questions about (scientific) integrity or reports of alleged violations can be sent to integriteit@plantentuinmeise.be.