Governance and organization

The Foundation for Auditing Research (FAR) is established following recommendation 5.10 of the Dutch audit profession’s improvement plans (“In the public interest”) of September 2014. The activities to be carried out by FAR consist of three elements:

Opening the ‘black box’ of auditing by gathering data from the affiliated audit firms;

Conducting multidisciplinary and multi-method research projects based on a research agenda, and:
Knowledge dissemination to academically inform the professional development and policy making. All scientific research within FAR is conducted under the FAR Code of Independence.

The FAR is open to all audit practices, both large and small as well as auditors in business and government. Audit firms and departments can affiliate with FAR if they provide data access and commit to a minimum grant of EUR 50.000 or more. Other parties wanting to contribute, either by providing research data or financial means, are welcome as sponsors. Such commitments are for an initial 5-year period.

Affiliated firms and sponsors

The eight largest audit firms in the Netherlands took the initiative to provide financial support to the foundation and to make data available for research over an initial period of five years (with an interim evaluation being held after a two-year period). Flynth joined FAR as per 1 January 2018. This again underlines that FAR is focused on profession-wide research questions, including those in small and medium sized organizations and owner managed businesses.

Current affiliated firms and sponsors: