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The League of European Research Universities (LERU) is an alliance of Europe's leading research universities. Its Research Policy Group focuses on research and innovation policy matters. In its recent meeting hosted by UZH, the group addressed the implications of participating in the “Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment” (CoARA), an initiative that was formed in 2022 to reform research evaluation.
The LERU Research Policy Group meets biannually as a plenary and focuses its activities on topics connected to research and innovation policy. Among other agenda points, the group’s meeting discussed its members’ learnings from participation in the “Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment” (CoARA). This coalition involves a diverse group of over 350 organizations, including universities, research funders, and other research-related entities from more than 40 countries. By drafting an "Agreement on Reforming Assessment”, the coalition’s goal is to create a more inclusive and comprehensive approach to assess research contributions.
Research assessment is used to select projects and researchers for funding, for determining career progression, and to evaluate research units and institutes. The “Agreement on Reforming Assessment” outlines the notion that the assessment of research, researchers, and research organizations recognizes the diverse outputs, practices, and activities that maximize the quality and impact of research. This requires basing assessment primarily on qualitative judgement, for which peer review is central. The qualitative judgment may be supported by responsible use of quantitative indicators.
During the meeting, Elisabeth Stark, UZH Vice President Research, presented UZH’s approach to elaborating an action plan along with examples of initiatives already implemented regarding research assessment. Elisabeth Stark also shared challenges involved in the implementation of the “Agreement on Reforming Assessment” with fellow LERU members. For instance, discrepancies between guidelines and policy as well as actual practices may pose difficulties.
In fact, LERU universities face similar implementation issues of the agreement. With regards to whether to join the CoARA coalition, many agreed that it is not a straightforward yes-or-no matter. Choosing not to sign does not imply a lack of concern for research assessment. Some LERU members feel that signing the agreement might limit their choices in research assessment, or they do not see the added value of the agreement. Others, including UZH, do not perceive the agreement as prescriptive or limiting the universities’ autonomy. They regard their signature as an opportunity to give additional inputs to internal initiatives that align well and are already ongoing.
The League of European Research Universities (LERU) is a university network of 24 leading European research universities aiming to further politicians’, policy makers’ and opinion leaders’ understanding of the important role and activities of research-intensive universities. UZH has been a member of LERU since 2006. LERU organizes its activities mainly in approximately 25 working groups, which consist of representatives from the member universities, and the Research Policy Group is one of them. It will convene next in Barcelona in 2024.
Leslie Reinhard
