Accountability and credibility

Staff in Science Division are committed to the principles outlined in the Code of Conduct for the Queensland Public Service, including:

1. Integrity and impartiality
2. Promoting the public good
3. Commitment to the system of government
4. Accountability and transparency.

We uphold the principles and ethics of the Code of Conduct by ensuring our staff adhere to:

• external, independent peer reviews of processes and methods to ensure credibility of our science outputs and appropriate acknowledgement of intellectual property and authorship
• the departmental policy on conflict-of-interest declarations for projects, procurements and appointments
• agreed contractual arrangements and memoranda of understanding with our clients, both internal and external to government
• the highest standards of science service delivery by following the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research and other relevant research ethics, laws, codes of conduct and standards (e.g. ISO Standards and NATA accreditation)
• the principles of the department’s Open Data Strategy, supporting a trusted and accessible data ecosystem and the responsible release and reuse of non-sensitive government data
• the Office of the Queensland Chief Scientist’s:
  • scientific collections principles,
  • the ROI approach for public good research investment and partnerships
  • REDS decision rules to guide Queensland Government investment in research and development (REDS – Real future impact; external commitment; Distinctive angle; Scaling toward critical mass).

Our principles for conducting science are based around:

• delivering quality assured and defensible science to support and inform evidence-based government decision making and planning
• the policies and principles of the Queensland Government Enterprise Architecture on Artificial Intelligence for Artificial Intelligence, with any appropriate use of AI supported by the Foundational artificial intelligence risk assessment framework (FAIRA) framework to ensure transparency, accountability and effective risk management
• ensuring that the digital systems supporting our science are designed and governed in accordance with Queensland Government Enterprise Architecture (QGEA) best practices, including Queensland Government cyber security policies, standards and guidance
• maintaining strong digital science foundations through a cloud-native data platform that supports secure data access, data integrity, analytics and future scientific capability, aligned with the Queensland Government Cloud Strategy and operating in tandem with The Department of Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation's High Performance Computing capability
• adopting a business model to collaborate with other research organisations, universities, other government science agencies, private and not-for-profit sectors to harness the best available scientific minds, tools and knowledge
• continuing to invest in the capability of our people through training, professional and accelerated learning, modernisation of our systems and infrastructure, attraction and retention of talent, and development of succession plans and knowledge sharing.