Sym­po­sium on Re­search Eval­ua­tions, In­di­ca­tors, and Im­pact Assess­ment in a CoARA Per­spec­tive

Aalborg University (AAU) is proud to present Dr. James Morris, Senior Policy Officer at Science Europe and Dr. Gunnar Sivertsen, Professor at Nordic Institute for Studies of innovation, research and education (NIFU) as key speakers.

Under the auspices of the EU Commission, the agreement document from July 2022, Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment (ARRA), serves as a new common framework for evaluating research with a focus on combining quantitative metrics with qualitative assessments on collaboration, openness, and societal impact. ARRA pushes forward the agenda on reforming research assessments and evaluations by contributing to the rapid development within qualitative parameters to measure and evaluate research and impact of research.

By signing ARRA and becoming a member of the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA), signatories commit to using responsible metrics and to include qualitative and quantitative methods to assess research and researchers. Several research institutions and research foundations have already signed ARRA. For Denmark, it currently applies to six universities, as well as The Lundbeck Foundation, Independent Research Fund Denmark, and The Danish National Research Foundation.

At the same time, changes in research evaluations and measurements for research and researchers lead to several important questions and reflections. For instance, how do responsible metrics work in practice, how is it possible to measure more qualitative elements of research, and is it possible to benchmark these, and should they be benchmarked, and if so in what format? Moreover, what are the assumptions on research assessment, and how do these changes affect the behavior of researchers?

The AAU’s new research indicator is a first example of implementing the commitments in ARRA into practice. The indicator was approved by the Aalborg University board in June 2023, and the indicator is now in the implementation phase at the university.