How Mentoring Undergraduate Students by Research Integrity Professionals or Role Models Working in The Global South Institutions Could Promote Research Integrity at a National Level: The Nigerian Students' Experience

Mentors and role models can promote institutional research integrity. Anecdotal and empirical reports agree on the clear and positive role that mentorship and role modelling play in fostering responsible conduct of research; however, a good number of these reports come from Global North institutions, with little or no information on how these behaviours or relationships impact research integrity practices in Global South institutions. In Nigeria, we present a case example of how a research integrity role model and mentor sparked the fire of research integrity in the heart of an undergraduate medical student at a Southern Nigerian medical school. The series of events in the relationship of the duo led to the founding of the first National Undergraduate Medical Research Society, known as the National Association of Undergraduate Medical Researchers, NAUMR. The NAUMR is built on the foundations of research integrity. Although basically a research-based association, responsible, reproducible and reliable science are its focus. The founding members recognise the unmistakable role integrity plays in trustworthy biomedical and socio-behavioural science, right from the school to the industry. In this presentation, the authors/ producers wondered that if a single individual could cause a spark in a national movement for responsible conduct of research among undergraduates; what could happen in all other institutions in developing countries if the global research integrity ecosystem supports the development of a structured mentorship programme in the authors' region. This presentation made at the Vancouver World Conference on Research Integrity, WCRI, 2026, is an urgent call to global research integrity promoters to focus on mentorship and role modelling in the Global South research integrity capacity-building programmes.