Urgent call for improvements in research regulation required
In a concerning development, structural issues within the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) of Taiwan have come to light, leading to repeated funding of underperforming sports science research projects. These issues, which have been highlighted in a major scandal at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU), involve conflicts of interest, lack of transparency, and serious ethical breaches.
The NTNU scandal, which involved the coercion of female soccer players into repeated blood draws, revealed a major violation of human research ethics. The project, funded by the NSTC, proceeded with serious ethical violations, indicating systemic weaknesses in research oversight and compliance enforcement within the NSTC's funding and review processes.
Key structural problems evident in this case and likely more broadly are weak ethical oversight and enforcement, conflicts of interest, lack of transparency, and inadequate accountability and sanctions. The project proceeded with serious ethical violations despite NSTC funding, suggesting that ethical review mechanisms either failed to detect or did not adequately sanction misconduct early on.
Conflicts of interest are also a concern, with the coercion and continued funding of underperforming or unethical projects potentially allowing those with personal stakes or internal influence to override objective assessment standards. Lack of transparency is another issue, with insufficient transparency in the grant evaluation and monitoring systems hindering timely detection of underperformance or ethical breaches.
Despite evidence of serious wrongdoing, the university and project leaders received fines but continued issues imply that penalties and funding cancellations might not be sufficiently deterrent or systematically applied, leading to repeated instances of similar problems.
While detailed official NSTC structural review reforms are pending, this case highlights fundamental weaknesses in their review mechanisms for sports science projects funded by NSTC. The authorities must conduct a thorough review and implement fundamental reforms to the current review and oversight mechanisms of scientific research projects.
Stricter regulations surrounding conflicts of interest, establishing a more transparent and diverse review process, limiting the number of concurrent projects that can be held by a single principal investigator, and strictly enforcing research ethics reviews are suggested reforms. The authorities must also strengthen oversight and accountability to avoid instances of blurred responsibilities and misallocated resources.
Fundamental and systemic reform is needed to eliminate the vicious cycle of funding misuse followed by poor results in research and development. The insufficient outcomes of the research project highlight deep-rooted issues in project design, implementation, and management. The unclear division of responsibilities between the principal investigator and the team responsible for executing research is a serious flaw in the project.
The case of the NTNU women's soccer team should alarm the sports and academic communities. There is an urgent need for the authorities to take decisive action to address these issues and ensure that Taiwan's sports science research is conducted ethically, transparently, and to a high standard.
References: [1] The source for this article is a report on the investigation conducted by the authorities in July 2025, which is publicly available.
- The scandal at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU), involving the coercion of female soccer players for blood tests in a sports science project funded by the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), underscores the need for a more rigorous health-and-wellness focus in fitness-and-exercise research.
- With concerns over conflicts of interest, lack of transparency, and ethical breaches within the NSTC's sports science research funding and review processes, it's crucial that reforms are implemented to ensure the council supports ethical, high-quality research projects, as part of a broader strategy to promote science, health-and-wellness, fitness-and-exercise, and sports.
