Open Science Coalition Pushes for Fairer Research Assessment
The European Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) is driving efforts to make research evaluation more transparent and inclusive. The initiative emphasizes the role of digital platforms in supporting open data, reproducibility, and cross-institutional collaboration, creating new requirements for research funding portals.
- The CoARA initiative, launched in 2022, has rapidly grown to include over 700 signatories and 610 member organizations, primarily universities and research centers from across Europe and globally. This coalition commits members to implement shared principles for research assessment reform within a defined timeframe. - A key tenet of the coalition is to shift assessment towards qualitative judgment with peer review at its core, supported by the responsible use of quantitative indicators. This approach moves away from relying on journal-based metrics, such as impact factors, to evaluate research and researchers. - In a recent white paper, CoARA advocated for making societal impact a core criterion in research assessment, on par with academic excellence. The paper provides a framework with six guiding principles for integrating societal impact into evaluation, including co-creation with stakeholders and planning for impact from the start. - As part of its efforts, CoARA launched a "First Call for Cascade Funding" to support projects aimed at reforming research assessment practices. The funding is distributed across three categories: Institutional Pilot Projects (up to €30,000), Teaming Projects (up to €40,000), and Institutional Change Projects (up to €60,000). - The European Commission is actively promoting the use of Artificial Intelligence in the public sector to improve efficiency and service delivery. The "Apply AI" strategy aims to accelerate AI adoption across various industries and public services, supported by initiatives like the Apply AI Alliance to coordinate action among stakeholders. - Digital accessibility for public sector websites and mobile applications is mandated by the EU's Web Accessibility Directive (Directive 2016/2102). This requires compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA and the publication of an accessibility statement. - The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) is a major initiative by the European Commission to provide a unified access point for European research data. This federated approach to data management aims to make research data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR). - Service design is increasingly being recognized by the European Commission as a key driver for innovation in the public sector. Initiatives like the "Service Design for Innovation (SDIN)" project, funded under the Marie Curie programme, aim to build a network of researchers to advance the application of service design in European organizations.
