Customer Story - OFFICE OF RESEARCH INTEGRITY (ORI)
ORI Works to Prevent Research Misconduct with Tools That Positively Impact Behavior
To address the serious consequences of research misconduct, the Office of Research Integrity partnered with WILL Interactive to develop immersive, scenario-based training tools. These interactive experiences help scientists navigate ethical dilemmas, promote healthier lab cultures, and have reached nearly half a million users worldwide. The long-standing collaboration continues to evolve, supporting global scientific integrity through engaging, real-world learning.
Solution
Created interactive ethics training
Built decision-making skills
Fostered a culture of integrity
Industry
Research Institution
Impact
The training strengthened ethics and lab culture for researchers worldwide
Project Overview
To combat the widespread and damaging effects of research misconduct, the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) partnered with WILL Interactive to create immersive, scenario-based training tools that go beyond traditional compliance messaging. Through interactive movies like The Lab and The Research Clinic, ORI equips bench scientists and clinical researchers with the skills to navigate real-world ethical dilemmas and workplace pressures. By making learners active participants in branching storylines that reflect their daily realities, these tools promote ethical decision-making, healthier lab cultures, and lasting behavior change—reaching nearly half a million users worldwide and translated into more than a dozen languages.
Key Highlights
- The training has reached nearly 500,000 users worldwide and is available in over a dozen languages.
- The programs have operated virtually issue-free on ORI’s website for more than a decade.
- Users engage in high-stakes decision-making within realistic scenarios, enhancing their ability to handle workplace pressures.
- The training fosters lab environments grounded in communication, wellbeing, and ethical leadership.
The Need
Scientific research misconduct is a problem that impacts society on multiple levels. To cite just a few of the deleterious effects of misconduct in the field of scientific research: drugs, medical treatments, procedures, or equipment derived from falsified or fabricated data can endanger human health and life; the fallout can destroy public trust in private and public research institutions; those institutions can sustain economic and reputational damage; and innocent researchers can be tainted by dishonest colleagues.
The Office of Research Integrity is the US government agency tasked with protecting the integrity of Public Health Service (PHS) funded research by promoting responsible conduct and preventing research misconduct. This includes overseeing investigations into allegations of misconduct. In pursuit of their goals, ORI needs an online resource that reaches a worldwide audience with a message more useful than, “Research misconduct - don’t do it!”
The Answer
ORI chooses WILL’s branching storyline interactive movies to promote positive behavior change within two distinct populations: bench scientists and clinical researchers. These products, The Lab and The Research Clinic, immerse learners in recognizable work and home environments, realistically portraying various professional and personal stressors that can often lead to research misconduct, while allowing users to make decisions that can mitigate or exacerbate difficult situations.
Making learners the center of a contextual adventure allows them to practice the healthy decision-making that will help them avoid destructive behaviors. By portraying various individuals at all levels of a diverse workplace (from research assistants to accomplished lab leaders to the university administrators who investigate charges of research misconduct), the experience promotes a healthy lab/workplace culture – a culture that values open communication, quality of life, and emotional health - as the foundation for research misconduct prevention.
Addressing What Matters for Their Business
A Long-Term Collaboration
After twelve years of continuous use, ORI engaged WILL to refresh The Lab and The Research Clinic with a new graphic design, updated instructional text, re-edited scenes, and new narrated video clips that reflect evolving sensibilities.
WILL is also producing a sequel to The Lab, which expands on interpersonal and self-care skills for research scientists, lab leaders, and university Research Integrity Officers.
Easily Fielded, Used by Hundreds of Thousands
WILL’s content is seamlessly integrated into ORI’s website, where it operates with virtually no technical issues and has been accessed, to date, by nearly half a million users from around the world.To serve this international audience, WILL translates the products into more than a dozen languages.
Dedicated Professionals Who Demand More
The dedicated professionals at ORI require training that engages a vast international audience, delivering an immersive experience that can improve lab culture - as well as convey hard facts about the consequences of research misconduct.WILL meets and exceeds those demands, delivering experiences that help learners develop the skills and knowledge to avoid the negative consequences of research misconduct.
The Results
ORI’s training solutions now deliver more than compliance—they foster ethical awareness, reduce the risk of misconduct, and support a healthier research culture globally. The collaboration with WILL Interactive has led to impactful, user-driven learning tools that continue to evolve alongside the scientific community they serve.
