EUA committed to co-create a reform of research assessment

EUA, together with Science Europe, Dr. Karen Stroobants (in her individual capacity as researcher with expertise in research on research) and the European Commission, is leading the drafting of an agreement on how to reform research assessment across Europe.

The exercise is part of a broader European Commission initiative to reform research assessment systems in Europe as one of the new European Research Area (ERA) Actions. This follows a year of extensive consultations with stakeholders.

The aim is to create a coalition of organisations who conduct or fund research, national and regional assessment authorities and associations of researchers and research funders, as well as learned societies and other relevant organisations, who are willing and committed to implement reforms to the current research assessment system.

The drafting process is being run in a bottom-up and inclusive way with the drafting team working closely with a core group, which represents the diversity of the research community across Europe. The 250+ organisations who have already expressed their interest in the initiative also participate as part of a stakeholder assembly. The first assembly met on 3 March 2022 to discuss the process and elements of the draft agreement. The stakeholder assembly will remain open to new members at all times through an open call for interest. Organisations are welcome to become part of the assembly and to be involved in the drafting process. 

Finally, member states representatives in the ERA Forum and in the European Research Area Committee (ERAC) will be updated on the work and given the opportunity to provide their input to the draft agreement.

Research assessment is one of the three major priority areas for EUA work on Open Science along with Open Access to scholarly outputs in a just scholarly publishing ecosystem and FAIR research data. Earlier this year, the EUA President Michael Murphy highlighted the importance of the reforms at the 2022 Open Science European Conference where the Paris Call on Research Assessment was adopted in support of the initiative. In parallel, EUA Council recently adopted the EUA Open Science Agenda 2025 which aims to further implement open science in Europe with EUA members and sector stakeholders.

As part of one of the lines of action to engage members in improving and strengthening their research assessment practices, EUA will organise several online meetings with its members on the initiative for the reform of research assessment and the draft agreement in the coming months.

This article was first published on 14 March by EUA.