Moving forward in research assessment - perspectives from research institutes, researchers and funders

Research assessment is at the core of the research activity, as it also defines the values we want to promote in the research ecosystem. While considering the differences among disciplines and communities, it is important to agree on a common set of criteria and principles to evaluate research.

The practice of evaluating research and researchers based on few quantitative publication metrics has led to the rise of several relevant global initiatives in the last decade such as the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), the Leiden Manifesto, the Hong Kong principles and Open Science. These initiatives call for a more fair and transparent research assessment system, based on quality rather than pure quantity. The new European Research Area also recognizes the necessity to change the current assessment system, moving away from publication metrics and focusing rather on the content, quality and added value of the scientific outputs.

However, there are still relevant challenges at the implementation level that call for urgent solutions. In this webinar, we will discuss assessment of research organisations and individual researchers, with a focus on promotion and career progression. We will focus on the following questions:

Why do we evaluate research organizations? What and how do we measure? What are the shortcomings of the assessment system and how do we overcome them collectively?
Why do we evaluate individual researchers? What should we evaluate? How should we evaluate them? What are the obstacles to change the current evaluation system of researchers? What are the gains?
Funding agencies and policy makers are key actors in research evaluation. How are policy makers influencing the future of research evaluation? What responsibility do funding agencies hold for changing research assessment?

We will first have a round table with a panel of speakers followed by a Questions & Answers session.

Thursday 28 October 2021, 12.30-14.00 CET

Confirmed speakers

Konstantinos Glinos, Head of Unit for Open Science, DG Research & Innovation, European Commission
Paola Bovolenta, ERC Scientific Council Member and Research Professor at the Center for Molecular Biology Severo Ochoa, CSIC-UAM
Ignasi López Verdeguer, Director of the Department of Research and Innovation at “la Caixa” Foundation
Johan van de Gronden, Director of KWF (Dutch Cancer Society)
René Medema, Chair of EU-LIFE and Scientific Director of NKI
Monica Bettencourt Dias, Co-Chair of EU-LIFE and Director of IGC