Latest developments on the Research Assessment Reform
31 October 2022
On 28 September 2022, the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment officially opened for signatures during a plenary session at the European Research and Innovation Days. Building up on the discussions held in Padua in June in connection with the Coimbra Group Annual Conference, the network has continued fostering dialogue among its members on this initiative.
On 20 October representatives from the CG universities gathered in an online Close Rectors Meeting that focused on the presentation of the Coalition of Assessing Research Assessment (CoARA) governance documents. Participants had the opportunity to take stock of the various positions within the CG towards this initiative, identify issues of common interest and exchange about the potential involvement of the Coimbra Group in the CoARA.
On the same day opened the call for candidacies for Chair, Vice-Chairs and Steering Board members of the CoARA, with a deadline on 17 November 2022. Any coalition member organisation can nominate “one of its employees, or other persons affiliated or having a contractual relation with them”, as a candidate. The Steering Board will be responsible for the CoARA overall oversight, strategy, work plan and sustainability and will ensure that the organisational perspective remains focused on the longer term aims of the coalition.
Following this subject, on 25 October, CG Executive Board chair Ludovic Thilly participated in an expert workshop together with a selected group of senior figures and experts from across the European and international R&I spectrum. The debate, organised by Science Business, focused on what should research assessment reform aim to deliver and how to get there. During his intervention, Ludovic Thilly, focused on the importance of considering “the large variety of career development settings and funding ecosystems”, as well as on the need for good role models: “CoARA must be a coalition of doers leading by example”, he expressed.
Other topics of discussion during this expert workshop were the concept of excellence in research assessment, the readiness of the scientific community for a systemic change and the geographical dimension of the reform.