What we are doing

We support the European Commission European Research Area (ERA) by participating at stakeholder platforms and related working groups aimed at the advancement of ERA, as well as working actively with our member institutes in the implementation of ERA policies. We are also active in relevant fields for the definition of the new ERA, such as open science, research careers and research assessment, as described below.


ERA governance and Pact for research and innovation in Europe
 
Research Assessment
  • Being a signatory of the CoARA Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment and member of the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA)
  • Participating in the CoARA Call for Working Groups with a number of fully developed proposals, and being affiliated to three working groups:
    • Supporting the alignment of research assessment systems with CoARA in biomedical disciplines through administrative reforms and governance (SAGA), co-chaired by EU-LIFE
    • Reforming Academic Career Assessment (ACA)
    • Early-and-mid-Career Researchers (EMCRs) – Assessment and Research Culture
  • EU-LIFE was a member of the core group of organisations working closely with the drafting team facilitated by the European Commission in January 2022 to develop an agreement on reforming research assessment in Europe.
  • Contributing to the creation of a new research assessment system in Europe with participation in workshops, such as:
  • Participating in bilateral meetings with European Commission representatives to provide input on research assessment
  • Creating a EU-LIFE Task Force on Research Assessment, aimed at providing our member institutes with a framework to share good practices for assessment of research organisations and individual researchers, and to discuss the research evaluation system in Europe
  • Organising the EU-LIFE policy webinar Moving forward in research assessment - perspectives from research institutes, researchers and funders
 
Open Science

 

Research careers in Europe

 

Bridging the gap between science policy and the global scientific community

 

Latest events

Our position

EU-LIFE strongly stands for making the European Research Area a reality and advancing in open science. A healthy Research & Innovation ecosystem – through achieving ERA and progressing in open science - needs strong institutions and cannot fall solely on the shoulders of individual researchers or projects.

We advocate for the key role of research and innovation organizations in the implementation of ERA and promotion of excellent Open Science.

Why it’s important

The European Research Area (ERA) is at the heart of the common European policy for research, with the idea of developing a “common market” for research and innovation in  Europe and promoting a leading role for European research worldwide. ERA has been reshaped by the Council of the European Union in 2008,  included the involvement of stakeholders since 2012 and is currently under revision. As the overarching EU policy for research and innovation, ERA encapsulates a vision for future and shapes subsequent policies. 

ERA aims at increasing Europe’s competitiveness in research by setting up 6 priorities: more effective national research systems, an optimal transnational cooperation and competition, including optimal transnational cooperation and competition and research infrastructures, an open labour market for researchers, gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research, an optimal circulation, access to and transfer of scientific knowledge including knowledge circulation and open access, international cooperation. 

Open Science is a new approach to the scientific process. Open Science has the potential to contribute to better and more efficient science, nonetheless it also set great challenges.