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AI Policy

Policy for the use of AI at NIOO-KNAW

v.1 November 2025 by AI Committee

[!NOTE] For KNAW Policy, go to [link]

[!NOTE] For the 5 "lab rules" for AI at NIOO, go to [link]

NIOO about the use of AI:

Vision

The Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) recognizes that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become an integral part of our society and is a transformative technology that can help optimizing administrative and management processes, carrying out research more efficiently and addressing complex challenges. A range of tasks can be augmented and automated in this way.

When AI is used in research and management processes at NIOO, it is important that it is done in a responsible and ethical manner. This means in compliance with the Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity, and with existing laws and regulations (e.g., the Artificial Intelligence Act and GDPR). AI must serve to augment human intelligence and expertise but should not become the guiding principle in establishing research directions or executing research and management tasks. At NIOO, AI cannot and should not replace human judgment, moral agency, or accountability in scientific practice.

NIOO adheres to the KNAW AI guidelines. Additionally, practical and ethical guidelines for the use of AI at NIOO have been made (section 2), as well as helpful tools for governance, stewardship and training of NIOO personnel and students (section 3).

Five practical and ethical guidelines for responsible use of AI at NIOO

By taking these guidelines into consideration, NIOO people work together towards safe and ethical use of AI. You can see them as the 5 "lab rules" for using AI. You are:

1. Accountable 🔗

  • Human-in-the-lead is the guiding principle for working with AI.
  • Researchers retain 100% responsibility for the accuracy, integrity and scientific validity of AI-generated content or analysis.
  • AI cannot be held accountable for actions you have taken.
  • AI tools can never be listed as author on NIOO publications.

2. Transparent 🔗

  • Clearly state where, for what and which (gen)AI has been part of a process, including in publications and student reports. Acknowledgement can be done in a statement or in the methods section of a paper/report.
  • Share and publish code and prompts that have been used, as you would with data or scripts. You can also make use of the NIOO AI Library to share with colleagues.
  • Follow FAIR and Open Science principles when using AI in sharing and reporting data.

3. Critical 🔗

  • Verify that data usage by AI adheres to standards on research integrity and Open and FAIR science.
  • Make sure to check output generated by AI on factual accuracy.
  • Check AI-generated output on unintended algorithmic and database biases.

4. Secure/Protective 🔗

  • Mind your data security! Be alert on materials shared with AI. Do not share e.g., sensitive, personal, or ecologically sensitive knowledge and data with publicly accessible AI.
  • Check the privacy settings of publicly accessible AI tools strictly. E.g. set data sharing/privacy settings to not 'improve the model for everyone'.
  • Be aware who owns the intellectual property of materials shared with AI. Do not share e.g., unpublished work, data, copyrighted material, application letters or project ideas of others with publicly accessible AI.

5. Aware 🔗

  • Assess the societal impact that your use of AI has. Proactively mitigate unintended biases with respect to equity, justice, representation, etcetera.
  • Be aware of the environmental impact of your use of AI. Do not use AI for things that could be done equally efficiently without.
  • Be conscious of the fact that major LLMs are often trained on copyrighted material.

Governance, stewardship and training

Governance

NIOO has an AI committee. This committee meets four times per year and is responsible for

  • overseeing developments in the field of AI outside and inside of NIOO;
  • assessing the use of AI in research;
  • providing tools and support for the use of AI at the NIOO;
  • reviewing and assessing advantages and risks of using AI;
  • and updating the NIOO AI policy if needed.

The NIOO AI committee will link to relevant committees and teams within and outside NIOO to enable responsible use and implementation of AI tools at NIOO. These committees and platforms include

  • The NIOO management team;
  • RIAB for research ethics and responsible use of AI in research;
  • Green Team for Environmental awareness and environmental impact of AI;
  • ICT and Bioinformatics for technological implementation of tools and AI support;
  • RSO for Gitlab NIOO AI Library (with prompt library and practical guidelines);
  • SURF for tools and interfaces for using AI in a safe way;
  • KNAW and other KNAW institutes (HUC cluster) for sharing ideas, guidelines and infrastructure for the use of AI;
  • LTER-LIFE for (the development of) ecology-specific AI tools and technologies.

The NIOO AI committee consists of at least five members: three/four researchers and/or research assistants, an RSO member and the NIOO privacy coordinator (table 1).

Role Responsibilities
2-3 researchers/research assistants Representatives research departments, connecting to department heads, talking point of the use of AI tools at research departments, connection to RIAB, Green Team, LTER-LIFE
RSO member Chair, Representative CMS, oversight of the use of AI tools at CMS, connection to MT, ICT, bioinformatics, KNAW and SURF, responsible for Github prompt library and practical guidelines
Privacy coordinator Securing that NIOO AI guidelines and use of AI is in line with use of privacy-sensitive data and information

Table 1. Overview members and responsibilities of the AI committee at NIOO

Stewardship

NIOO has an AI Library, set up as a Gitlab community for easy collaboration, maintained and managed by RSO. The community includes:

  • An up-to-date overview of tools to use and tools not to use (e.g., tools that do not comply with scientific integrity, privacy regulations or ethical guidelines);
  • Practical guidelines for using AI, publishing models and reporting on the use of AI in articles, reports and theses;
  • An open and FAIR 'prompt library' for storing and re-using prompts;
  • This policy document, including practical examples

Training

NIOO will organize training sessions and discussions on the use of AI. The aim of these sessions and discussions is to equip researchers, students and staff with the necessary information, techniques and tools to use AI responsibly and effectively (e.g., how to write prompts, which tools to use for what etc.), discuss together how we want to use AI at NIOO in a responsible, ethical and integer manner (i.e., according to the five NIOO guidelines for the use of AI), learn how to use AI during supervision and how to guide students, PhDs, and PDs to use AI responsibly. The NIOO AI committee can organize (or initiate the organization of) trainings and discussions, and this can be done together with e.g. HR, ICT, Bioinformatics, LTER-LIFE, RIAB, Green Team and/or KNAW or organizations outside NIOO depending on the aim of training or discussion and the expertise needed.

Acknowledgements

References

  • KNAW policy (link)
  • AI policy of University of Utrecht (link)
  • University of Amsterdam (link)

AI statement

[AI+] Output by LLMs (Gemini, ChatGPT and CoPilot) was used as inspiration for this document. The text was fully written by NIOO people.