A survey of 1,500 Portuguese researchers found that more than 90% admitted to questionable research behaviors, signaling a widespread “grey zone” ethics problem. The practices ranged from selective citations to post hoc hypothesis creation, reflecting behaviors that may fall short of overt misconduct but still erode research reliability. The findings add pressure for institutions and journals to strengthen training and enforcement mechanisms around research conduct. For biotech translation pipelines, where preclinical-to-clinical progression depends on robust data, “grey zone” behavior can distort target biology and inflate uncertainty around efficacy signals. The report frames the integrity issue as pervasive rather than confined to isolated teams, underscoring that governance and reproducibility work remains an active operational risk for the life sciences ecosystem.