TSV has signed an international agreement on reforming research assessment and joined the CoARA -coalition.
In July 2022, Science Europe, an organisation representing the European research funders, published The Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment. The agreement is an outcome of the international Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA). Many Finnish organisations have been part of preparing the agreement. Central to the agreement are practices that advance diversity, openness and equality in research and research assessment. Such practices are seen to improve the quality and impact of science and research.
In Finland, the development of responsible research assessment is well underway. The Finnish scientific community, with the direction of the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies (TSV), produced the Recommendation for the responsible evaluation of a researcher in Finland already in 2020. Many of the goals set in the recommendation, such as assessment which prioritises the quality of research rather than publishing metrics, also appear in the CoARA agreement. In signing the agreement, organisations promise to advance responsible assessment practices. Concurrently, such organisations get a chance to join an international community in which assessment practices are further developed.
The Constitutive Assembly of CoARA took place on 1 December 2022. The Assembly, which already involves over 400 organisations, elected the coalition’s Steering Board and chose Rianne Letschert from Maastricht University as its Chair. European Science Foundation-Science Connect was appointed as the CoARA Secretariat.
The Finnish learned societies gather over 250 000 researchers, experts and citizens interested in science from different organisations, fields of science and societal sectors. The Federation of Finnish Learned Societies encourages all relevant organisations to join the development work of the new assessment culture that respects diversity in academic work and practices of open science. As of now, nineteen Finnish organisations have signed the CoARA agreement. Signatures to the agreement and CoARA membership remain open to additional organisations that wish to get involved.
See CoARA’s website and news on the new steering board for more information.
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