Coimbra Group High-Level Seminar on Research Policy, San Servolo, 6-7 December 2018
19 July 2018
Since 2013, the Coimbra Group has organised high-level policy seminars on research to address current issues in European research policy of key importance to member universities and to the European research community. The high-level policy seminars have been organised in collaboration with the Venice International University based on the Isola di San Servolo, Venice.
The high-level policy seminars are intended as a forum for informal dialogue between university rectors, stakeholders and key decision makers in European research policy.
The theme chosen by the Executive Board of the Coimbra Group for this year is “Defining and measuring impact of research: an inter-disciplinary and inter-sectoral approach”. The rationale is based on the increasing importance of research impact assessment currently observed in national, European and international research programmes, and expected to increase further in the future, in particular within the ninth European Research and Innovation Framework Programme, Horizon Europe, and associated Open Science policies. At the high-level seminar, we aim at gathering Coimbra Group rectors and experts from the field to reflect on the current state of research impact definitions and associated indicators, considering the different disciplines, sectors and viewpoints of involved funding bodies. A specific focus will be on one of the recent developments in research policy, i.e. the introduction of a mission-oriented approach and its impact on Research and Innovation practices in general. The seminar will be composed of four main sessions: the first will aim at providing information on the latest developments in FP9 and mission-oriented research, while the second and third sessions will focus on inter-disciplinary and inter-sectoral definitions and assessments of research impact. The last session will introduce case studies on how to develop a research impact culture at universities.
Among the invited key note speakers and discussants are key stakeholders in European research policy, representatives from European institutions, leading researchers and policy officers from member universities, rectors from member universities as well as representatives from other European university networks. As at earlier high-level policy seminar, the 2018 event will be attended by Rectors and Vice Rectors for Research at our member universities from all over Europe together with their senior research support officers. It is intended to offer senior representatives at our member universities a forum for discussion of issues arising from the design and implementation of the Horizon Europe.