The first thing that struck me was the extraordinary commitment of the people at the Agency with whom I have worked, and of the members and advisers of the CAR and its specific commissions, to the shared goal of being useful to the Catalan Higher Education System and the people who are part of it. It is the specific commissions that actually do the work of analysing whether the very numerous applications they receive meet the requirements for granting the appropriate research accreditation. I was impressed from day one by the general attitude of service and responsibility of everyone involved.
The task entrusted to AQU Catalunya by the legislation in force, which is carried out by the specific commissions, is to certify that applicants meet a threshold of quality and experience that, among other functions, enables them to apply for competitive examinations in the Catalan Higher Education System. People in all fields of knowledge are assessed ꟷ which is why there are six specific commissions advised by dozens of experts ꟷ and at very different stages of their professional careers ꟷ from tenure-eligible lecturers entering the system to people seeking accreditation to carry out tasks of consolidated scientific leadership. We have never tired of insisting that accreditations are in no way a substitute for the actual assessment processes carried out by the universities, who are responsible for identifying the most suitable person in each case.
In this context, among the advances we have made with our colleagues at the CAR over the years, I would highlight the firm consolidation of the principle that establishes, as in so many other things in life, in the assessment of research merits, that “the quality and relevance of activities must always prevail over quantity”. At the same time, we have noted with joy that this spirit of action has been strongly reinforced by various international initiatives, such as the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), the Leiden Manifesto or the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA), as well as the TRIPLE assessment model, led by the University of Utrecht, among other institutions, which is sure to be a source of inspiration for the new research assessment systems envisaged in the recently approved Law on science in Catalonia.
Likewise, in these years we have established strategies aimed at supporting groups which, for various reasons, in Catalonia still carry out their activities in less developed conditions than those available in disciplines with a longer research tradition. One example is the establishment of the singular field concept, which has allowed for the proper evaluation and activation of professionals in such valuable fields as nursing, among others. I also note with pride the firm stance that all CAR members have taken in promoting and supporting gender and equal opportunity policies in general. On its own, the CAR has a limited capacity to influence these issues, but we have invested considerable effort in exhausting the available margin and in joining the proposals of other entities that have tools with greater impact.
In short, it has been an immense honour to be part of the AQU Catalunya team and to discover extraordinary professionals and generous people, who have served the professionals of the Catalan Higher Education System to the best of their ability. Moreover, I note that I took over from one giant and passed it on to another, a woman. What could be better!