Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA)

Background

CoARA is an international initiative launched by the European Commission to gather like-minded research organisations from all over the world and form an independent coalition with the aim of reforming the way that we assess research. The core commitments of the coalition establish a common direction for this reform and align with other recent initiatives and movements that are already established, such as Open Science. 

The core commitments of CoARA are:

• Recognise diverse contributions to research
• Base research assessment primarily on qualitative evaluation
• Abandon inappropriate uses of journal- and metric-based evaluation
• Avoid the use of rankings of research organisations in research assessment. 

Relation to Open Science

How does CoARA, or assessment reform more broadly, relate to Open Science? Both are closely connected, because they aim to drive a culture change in research and improve the way research is conducted, valued and recognised. Open Science activities such as sharing of data, preregistration, Open Educational Resources, open access publishing, public engagement and promoting reuse and reproducibility (FAIR data and software) are examples of the diverse contributions to research that CoARA aims to recognise. By stimulating Open Science we are also fostering a culture change that in turn can lead to a different way of conducting and assessing research and broaden our definition of research quality. This also works the other way around. Advancing Open Science and stimulating its adoption and its recognition therefore also directly support CoARA and the broader movement to advance research assessment in general. There is a strong synergy here between CoARA and Open Science that should be explored further. 

UM efforts

The principles of CoARA align well with UM’s broader ambitions in the area of Open Science, Recognition & Rewards and the responsible use of rankings and indicators. Additionally, they complement the way that research quality is assessed at the institutional level through the Strategy and Evaluation Protocol (SEP). The university’s commitments and planned activities are further described in the UM CoARA action plan. You can find the CoARA action plan of UM and other members below.

Learn more

• The CoARA commitments
• Rianne Letschert appointed as CoARA Chair
• UM CoARA action plan for reforming research assessment

Questions?

If you have any questions regarding CoARA, please reach out to Nilam Khalil at UM’s Strategy & Policy department.