The TRUST Code – A Global Code of Conduct for Equitable Research Partnerships is a resource for all research stakeholders who want to ensure that international research is equitable.
Cite as: TRUST (2018) The TRUST Code – A Global Code of Conduct for Equitable Research Partnerships, DOI: https://doi.org/10.48508/GCC/2018.05
Previously known as The Global Code of Conduct for Research in Resource-Poor Settings; the Code was renamed at a reception at the UNESCO in 2024.
The European Commission adopted the TRUST Code in August 2018, being the first funder to do so.
The European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership adopted the TRUST Code in August 2018.
The University of Capetown adopted the TRUST Code in April 2019, being the first university world-wide to do so.
The Abaseen Foundation adopted the TRUST Code in April 2019, being the first foundation world-wide to do so.
The University of Central Lancashire adopted the TRUST Code in July 2019, being the first European university to do so.
The UKRI GCRF One Ocean Hub was the first global project to adopt the TRUST Code in July 2019.
The NWO adopted the TRUST Code in January 2020.
The Foundation Global Values Alliance adopted the TRUST Code in January 2020.
Wits University adopted the TRUST Code in April 2020. (After the WITS adoption, the full stop was missing).
Partners for Health and Development in Africa, headquartered in Nairobi, adopted the TRUST Code in November 2021.
UCLan Cyprus adopted the TRUST Code in November 2021.
The National Science Centre in Poland adopted the TRUST Code in December 2021.
Dikoda adopted the TRUST Global in March 2022.
Nature Portfolio adopted the TRUST Code as a framework to guide global research collaborations in June 2022.
The Belgian Institute of Tropical Medicine adopted the TRUST Code in May 2022.
Ghent University adopted the TRUST Code on 7th October 2022.
The publisher SAGE adopted the TRUST Code on 5th July 2023.
The Association of Commonwealth Universities adopted the TRUST Code on 5th July 2023.
The American Geophysical Union adopted the TRUST Code in May 2024.
The Pasteur Network adopted the TRUST Code in November 2024.
IDOS adopted the PREPARED Code in December 2024.
ENN adopted the TRUST Code in June 2025.
European Commission
The code is one of the pillars in the European Commission’s Global Approach to Research and Innovation:
“Research ethics and integrity: The rapid development of new technologies necessitates a continuous evaluation of current approaches to address ethical challenges and ensure human-centred technological innovation. The EU should continue to promote internationally the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity and the Global Code of Conduct for Research in Resource-Poor Settings.” (18 May 2021)
See also the coverage in ScienceBusiness and the EC press release.
Council of the European Union
The Council:
“INVITES the Commission and the Member States to apply the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity and the Global Code of Conduct for Research in Resource Poor Settings” (28 Sep 2021)
Please take the short course “The TRUST Code in 60 Minutes”. If you get 80% of the questions at the end of this course right, you will receive a badge.
The TRUST Code aims to prevent ethics dumping.
Video ©Springer Nature 2019, used with permission.
Spanish
French
German
Mandarin
Hindi
Portuguese
Greek
Japanese
Russian
Urdu
English
Our thanks for the available translations go to: Dr Nearchos Paspallis and Dr Mihalis Kritikos for the Greek translation, Dr Iftikhar Qayyum and Prof. Mukhtiar Zaman for the Urdu translation, Prof. Olga Kubar for reviewing the Russian translation, Mr Albert Schroeder for reviewing the German translation, Dr Michael Makanga and the EDCTP for providing the Portuguese translation, Dr Francois Hirsch and Dr Veronique Delpire for reviewing the French translation, Dr Yandong Zhao and Ms Xu Goebel for reviewing the Mandarin translation, Dr Shunzo Majima for reviewing the Japanese translation, Dr Dafna Feinholz for reviewing the Spanish translation, Dr Nandini Kumar and Dr Vasantha Muthuswamy, Dr. Swapnil S. Agarwal, Dr Prabhat K., Dr Roli Mathur, and Dr Amitabh Dutta for organising and reviewing the Hindi translation.
Researcher is a gender neutral term in English and its translation is meant to be read gender neutrally in all other languages.
The authors of the TRUST Code have only approved the English text of the code. Professional translators were responsible for the translations, which were checked by academics.
This Code was drafted under the leadership of Professor Doris Schroeder (UCLan) by:
We gratefully acknowledge valuable input on the code from the following research funders: Wellcome Trust, Global Forum on Bioethics in Research, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Medical Research Council UKRI, WHO TDR and European Commission.
We also received valuable input on the Global Code from the following industry partners: Sanofi, Roche, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, Boehringer Ingelheim and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations.
Existing guidelines have played an important role in formulating the TRUST Code. While it is not quoting any of the other guidelines directly, the authors have taken substantial inspiration from the ethics guidelines listed below in their version at the time: