The Barcelona Science Park hosted today’s conference, “Reforming research evaluation to promote scientific quality and impact: Experiences and trends within the framework of the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA)”. The event was organised by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), the CERCA Institution and the University of Carthage, and was co-funded by the CoARA coalition and the European Union.
On Thursday, 17 July, the Barcelona Science Park hosted the conference ‘Reforming research evaluation to promote scientific quality and impact: experiences and trends within the CoARA framework’, organised by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), the CERCA Institution and the University of Carthage (Tunisia), with co-funding from the CoARA coalition and the European Union.
The conference brought together representatives from universities, research centres and funding and assessment agencies to share experiences of implementing the principles of the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA). This is a European initiative that promotes profound and consensual reform of the research assessment system.
To promote ethical, collaborative, transformative and impactful research, these parameters must be included in the way research and researchers are evaluated.
Teresa Sanchis
Through this event, IBEC reaffirmed its commitment to improving scientific assessment practices. It has already taken significant steps in this area of work by adhering to the DORA Declaration and by joining CoARA. The event enabled progress in the collective debate on how to better recognise the diversity of research results, practices and impacts, beyond traditional quantitative indicators.
The conference began with a welcome address by Teresa Sanchis, IBEC’s Head of Strategy, who stated that “To promote ethical, collaborative, transformative and impactful research, these parameters must be included in the way research and researchers are evaluated”.
This was followed by the presentation of five Catalan initiatives that have been funded by the CoARA Cascade Funding programme. This programme supports pilot projects and knowledge exchange in order to facilitate real institutional change. The projects highlighted included initiatives from the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), Ramon Llull University (URL), the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), and the University of Carthage in collaboration with the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC).
The second session focused on sharing institutional experiences in developing action plans that align with CoARA principles. Participants included the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), the Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF), the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), the University of Barcelona (UB) and the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS).
