Following the official announcement during the European Research and Innovation Days 2022, the European Commission has signed the Agreement on reforming Research Assessment launched on 20 July 2022.
The Agreement is the result of a co-creation process to set a common direction for changes in assessment practices for researchers and research organisations, with the goal to maximise the quality and impact of research. This joint effort involves more than 350 organisations from 40 countries, including 23 Italian universities, research organizations and foundations.
The Agreement covers the principles, commitments and timeframe for reforms and lays out the principles for the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA), a group of organisations willing to work together to implement the reform. The Coalition’s establishment is one of the main expected outcomes of the European Research Area (ERA) Policy Agenda for 2022-2024.
Together with the Agreement’s signature, the European Commission also endorsed the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), created in 2012 to set recommendations to improve the evaluation of researchers and the outputs of scholarly research.
Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said:
“The signature of the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment and the endorsement of the DORA Declaration are a sign of the European Commission’s strong commitment to pave the way towards a reform of research assessment practices. Implementing changes is crucial to foster a research culture that recognises the diversity of contributions that maximise the quality and impact of research”.
