Short teaser text: De-Ming is a senior lecturer from the Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia.
Full text: Dr. De-Ming Chau is a senior lecturer from the Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia. He is the co-founder of the Young Scientists Network-Academy of Sciences Malaysia (YSN-ASM) Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Programme, and a member of the National Committee on Research Integrity of Malaysia. He is also a governing board member of the World Conference on Research Integrity. De-Ming has led the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) RCR Project and the YSN-ASM Science Integrity Working Group.
Function description: Head of Office of Research Integrity
Organisation: University of Cape Town
Location - country: Cape Town, South Africa
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Short teaser text: Lyn Horn is currently the Director of the Office of Research Integrity at the University of Cape Town, South Africa and an Extraordinary [Honorary] Associate Professor in the Centre for Applied Ethics at Stellenbosch University.
Full text: She is a medical doctor with a PhD in Bioethics and worked as a clinician in the public health sector for the first twenty years of her career before transitioning to an academic work environment in 2004. She has been working in the fields of research ethics and integrity for the last almost twenty years and served as the Research Integrity Officer (RIO) at Stellenbosch University from 2011 to 2016. In her current role she is responsible for the institutional-wide promotion of responsible research practice, including RCR education and training. She was the South African Co-Chair for the 7th WCRI 2022.
Organisation: University College Dublin, Institute for Discovery
Location - country: Ireland
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Short teaser text: Dr Maura Hiney is a qualified nurse who holds a PhD in Molecular Epizootiology and Diagnostics. Her career spans roles as a researcher, Head of the University of Galway Research Office, and Senior Manager at a national funding agency, where she led policy, evaluation, and international activities.
Full text: Maura is currently an Adjunct Professor of Research Integrity at University College Dublin’s Institute for Discovery. She works with the UCD Research Culture team to examine connections between research integrity and culture. In 2025, she was elected to the Royal Irish Academy for her contributions to both national and international research integrity policy.
Maura is a founding member of the Irish National Research Integrity Forum and played a key role in developing the first National Policy on Ensuring Integrity in Irish Research (updated in 2019 and 2024) and the 2022 Guidelines on Ensuring Integrity in Collaborative Research. She is currently the principal investigator on the first Survey on Research Integrity in Ireland. Internationally, she has collaborated with various groups to develop policies that promote trust in science, including Science Europe and the former ALLEA Permanent Working Group on Science and Ethics, where she served as Chair and co-authored the ALLEA European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity (2017 and 2023). She participates on the boards of the World Conferences on Research Integrity Foundation and the Embassy of Good Science, and acted as co-chair of the 8th World Conference on Research Integrity in 2024. Maura Hiney was a partner in the SOPs4RI project, which produced SOPs and guidelines to support good research practices and research integrity promotion plans for inclusion in European grant agreements. She is also a member of the Policy Advisory Boards for several EU-funded projects focused on ethics and research integrity.
Function description: President, Z Consulting, LLC
Organisation: Z Consulting
Location - country: Hawaii, USA
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Short teaser text: Ms. Hammatt, a licensed attorney with a Master's in Law and Ethics in medicine, provides writing services and research integrity consultation.
Full text: She previously served as Director of the Division of Education and Integrity at the U.S. Office of Research Integrity, Legal and Regulatory Specialist for an NIH-funded translational research network, and Director of the Research Integrity Program and Research Integrity Officer at the University of Hawaii. Ms. Hammatt has handled numerous cases of alleged misconduct and questionable research practice and contributed to policy development and teaching in medical ethics and the responsible conduct of research in a global context.
Function description: Associate Professor, Science Education Program
Organisation: Institute of Medical Biochemistry Leopoldo de Meis, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro,
Location - country: Brazil
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Short teaser text: Dr. Sonia Vasconcelos is associate professor at the Science Education Program of the Institute of Medical Biochemistry Leopoldo de Meis (IBqM), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).
Full text: She teaches science communication, research methodology, and research ethics/integrity, and most of her research focuses on these areas. Sonia is coordinator of the Professional Masters Program in Science Education [Educação, Gestão e Difusão em Biociências] at IBqM. She is coordinator of the Advisory Council for Research Ethics at UFRJ and former member of the Research Integrity Committee of the Brazilian Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). She represented the field of humanities and social sciences in this committee. She has been among the organizers of Brazilian Meeting on Research Integrity, Science and Publication Ethics (BRISPE), held biannually in Brazil since 2010. She was local co-chair of the 4th World Conference on Research Integrity (4WCRI) and a member of the Steering Committee of the fifth World Conference (Amsterdam 2017).
