The principles guiding the Queen鈥檚 Safeguarding Research Institutional Strategy are:
Research excellence
Queen鈥檚 is committed to excellence in research, which drives innovation and discovery and strengthens the University鈥檚 local, provincial, national, and international impact.
Queen鈥檚 acknowledges potential risks to the security of research, innovation and reputation faced by the research community, in many cases related to research partnerships, and takes appropriate responsibility to mitigate them.
Institutional support for researchers
Queen鈥檚 understands the potential security risks related to research and innovation and is taking the necessary steps and precautions to ensure research security (see , Government of Canada 2021).
Queen鈥檚 supports due diligence through the administration of research tools, technologies and support services that actively assess and mitigate risks to research and intellectual property.
Strong collaborations
According to the Government of Canada (2021), 鈥...collaborative research environments are essential to propel creativity and advance research discoveries鈥 .
Queen鈥檚 recognizes the need to ensure authentic intentions in research partnerships, but also to formulate mitigation measures to secure research investments.
Open dissemination of research results
The Tri-Agencies (2016) state their interest in 鈥減romoting the availability of findings that result from the research they fund, including research publications and data, to the widest possible audience, and at the earliest possible opportunity鈥 .
Queen鈥檚 encourages a consideration of the security implications of sharing research results, particularly with personal health and other confidential data, while promoting a research environment that is as open as possible and as closed as necessary.
Maintaining compliance and security
Queen鈥檚 recognizes the importance of the integrity of Canada鈥檚 research enterprise, particularly when considering compliance and security obligations and provisions. According to the Government of Canada (2021), 鈥渞esearch should always be practiced with integrity and transparency, in full respect of privacy, security, ethical considerations, and with appropriate intellectual property protections鈥 .
As such, Queen鈥檚 complies with relevant legal and commercial obligations and supports researchers with legal advice on research security considerations with legal and other implications.