The Institute for Information Law (IViR) is committed to ensuring that its research is conducted in an independent and transparent fashion. Independence of academic research concerns our ability to decide freely on relevant research questions and approaches; the use of appropriate methods to carry out research without undue interference from third (including funding) parties; and which findings to publish in what manner. Transparency constitutes a necessary precondition for trust in the independence of our work. Such transparency chiefly concerns openness and public communication about the funding streams enabling the academic research we do.
IViR acknowledges the importance of, and adheres to, the Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity. The Code of Conduct focuses on independence and transparency of and by individual researchers and projects. IViR acknowledges the importance of thinking about academic independence and transparency, both at the level of individual research projects and at the institute level. We consider the latter important in view of preventing financial dependence on single sources of funding and to take account of the potential agenda setting power of individual funders in academic (sub)fields. Concretely, this means that IViR strives to have a healthy composition of first stream (university), second stream (academic funding organizations such as NWO, ERC and Horizon Europe), and third stream funding (research for European Commission or Parliament, government ministries and agencies, NGOs, private sector, and foundations). When considering accepting funding, IViR will not only ensure that research proposals and agreements meet the standards for academic integrity as found in the Dutch Code of Conduct, but IViR will also reflect on whether the funding fits in the overall desired mix of funding streams at the Institute level, and how the proposed funding fits the strategic agenda of the funder and whether that strategic agenda is acceptable to IViR. In line with these convictions, IViR publishes a yearly updated overview of the composition (first, second, third stream) of research funding on its website.