Quality

For IMIBIC, quality is a transversal element that must incorporate all the actions carried out by the Institute, from research to training, innovation or dissemination of its results, and must be quantified and, therefore, measured objectively and evaluated, also externally by other institutions.

To this end, the Institute's activities will be geared towards satisfying the needs of professionals, patients and other stakeholders, in the context of a comprehensive Total Quality System in accordance with the accreditation model of the Carlos III Institute of Health (ISCIII).

The IMIBIC Quality Committee, which meets twice a year, is responsible for ensuring that these objectives are met in order to guarantee the quality of the Institute's research and services. Specifically, its functions are:

• Facilitating the management and informing all professionals of the organisation's quality policy.
• Collaborate in the fulfilment of the quality objectives set by the IMIBIC Management derived from the defined quality policy.
• Maintain and strengthen the focus on patients and other stakeholders and their needs in all activities carried out in the organisation.
• To maintain and strengthen the work aimed at satisfying the needs of IMIBIC professionals, favouring synergies and teamwork.
• To develop and maintain all tools aimed at continuous quality improvement.
• Ensure compliance with the principles and good practices included in the Code of Responsible Practice and Research Integrity.

Quality Commission

IMIBIC Quality Policy

Quality Management Manual

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The new Quality Plan 2021-2025 was approved by the Governing Council at its meeting of 3 March 2021. The general objective of this Plan is ‘To guide IMIBIC towards excellence through a system that guarantees quality as a transversal element that must be incorporated into all the actions carried out by the Institute’.

The specific objectives of the Quality Plan 2021-2025 are:

• Implement a quality system geared towards excellent science and innovation.
• Support the IMIBIC's cross-cutting unit accreditation initiative.
• To ensure compliance with the principles of Equality in the activities related to the Institute.
• Comprehensive review of all the Institute's activity, from an institutional point of view, so that deviations in the execution of the Strategic Plan and in the achievement of its objectives can be identified.

Regarding the review of the Quality Management System, IMIBIC's Management reviews the organisation's quality management system at planned intervals to ensure its continuing suitability, adequacy and effectiveness. With this review it can be detected whether the quality management system is in conformity with the planned arrangements, with the requirements of the ISO Standard and with the requirements of the established quality management system, and whether it has been effectively implemented and maintained.

Specifically, the 2021-2025 Quality Plan foresees the periodic monitoring of the Institute's activity in accordance with the indicators established in this Plan and in the IMIBIC Scorecard, the execution and results of each of the plans related to the IMIBIC Strategic Plan and the evaluation of the activity of the research groups in accordance with the objectives they have set and the IMIBIC evaluation criteria. A timetable has been established for monitoring the actions and indicators associated with the 2021-2025 Quality Plan, which will be carried out under the supervision of the Quality Committee..

In 2016, IMIBIC drew up a Code of Responsible Practices and Integrity in Research, which demonstrates the relationship that the Institute wishes to maintain both with the society for which it works and with the research staff working at the institution. It expresses the conviction that the quality and benefits of research are closely linked to integrity in research practices. This Code is an adaptation of the code developed by the University of Cordoba, so that, like the latter, it not only formulates aspirations or ideals about what good research practice should be, but is also the result of the institutional obligation to achieve the goals it has committed to society. This Code was approved by the Governing Board at its meeting on 3 March 2016. On 6 June 2016, the IMIBIC Management informed IMIBIC staff by e-mail of the existence of the Code, sending it as an attachment and informing them that it was available for consultation on the Institute's intranet, in the Key Documents section (Quality folder).

This Code has been reviewed and updated during 2020 by the Quality Commission in order to ensure that the principles of the ALLEA European Code of Conduct for Integrity in Research are included. The recent constitution of the IMIBIC Research Integrity Committee (08 March 2021) ensures proper dissemination and establishes avenues for the detection of problems and the implementation of relevant measures. The functions of the IMIBIC Integrity Committee are:

• To ensure compliance with the principles and good practices included in the Code of Responsible Practices and Integrity in Research at IMIBIC.
• Advise on its interpretation and application.
• Report on conflicts that may arise in relation to the integrity of the research, proposing a solution to them.
• Express amendments to the Code.
• Any other function that may be attributed to it related to research integrity.

Integrity Committe