ShareAQU Catalunya presents the ‘CoARA Action Plan 2025–2029’
The document, which is mandatory for all CoARA members, sets out how AQU Catalunya will implement over the next four years the commitments it undertook when it joined the coalition in 2022.
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AQU Catalunya has published today the CoARA Action Plan 2025–2029, which establishes the course of action that AQU Catalunya commits to following in order to implement the commitments the Agency assumed with CoARA (Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment) when it joined the coalition in 2022. The document, available on the AQU Catalunya website and on Zenodo, sets out the development of these commitments over the next four years, until 2029.
The actions to fulfil the commitments to CoARA, an international coalition that promotes the reform of the scientific research assessment system, involve the entire Agency and also envisage the possible deployment of new activities that AQU Catalunya is legally mandated to carry out. The plan is structured around nine strategic lines, which are developed through 23 actions. The most relevant ones are outlined below.
From a people-centred perspective, the reform of the evaluation criteria for the accreditation of university teaching staff applied by the Research Evaluation Committee (CAR) stands out, as does the adaptation of academic CVs to the new evaluation criteria. From an institutional perspective, the future development of criteria and procedures to assess research excellence carried out in departments, institutes and affiliated centres of Catalan universities is particularly relevant.
From AQU Catalunya’s own perspective, the plan includes actions to reduce the bureaucratic burden in evaluation processes, to train expert reviewers and all AQU staff in the reform of research assessment, and, finally, leadership actions by AQU Catalunya to disseminate these changes throughout the Catalan university system. The plan also promotes AQU Catalunya’s participation in CoARA working groups and the exploration of participation in other working groups and debates relevant to its evaluation activities. Another objective of the action plan is to promote open science in research assessment, as well as to incentivise open science within AQU Catalunya’s evaluation processes by incorporating it into the Agency’s criteria.
Also from the Agency’s perspective, the action plan foresees AQU Catalunya’s commitment to training the individuals who participate in evaluation committees on the changes introduced to the evaluation criteria. This includes, in particular, the assessment of diverse career paths, the avoidance of gender bias, the introduction of qualitative elements such as narratives, and the promotion of open and responsible science, among others. The plan also involves the creation of a system to monitor and publish the results of evaluation processes.
The implementation of this set of changes will extend until 2029. The presentation of the CoARA Action Plan 2025–2029 is accompanied by a new page on the AQU Catalunya website, where more in-depth information can be found on the changes the Agency is introducing in its research assessment processes and on the level of compliance with the commitments undertaken with this international coalition.