On October 8th, the UK CoARA National Chapter held its third Open Session, featuring case studies from from Prof. Helen Griffiths, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Research & Innovation at Swansea University, and Allison McCaig, Head of Impact and Outputs Unit at the University of Central Lancashire. The Steering Group has developed three working groups for 1) Action Plan development and implementation, 2) Coordination and engagement with national activities, and 3) Communication and outreach. Following the Open Session, the UK National Chapter held a discussion-based session on October 24th, covering the four core CoARA commitments.

On October 17th, the UK National Chapter also participated in the National Chapter Exchange Forum in Brussels with a presentation given by Grace Murkett on key learnings, challenges, and potential synergies between Working Groups and National Chapters.

The UK National Chapter has also recently launched a dedicated Sharepoint site, click here to learn more!

See below for additional resources from the UK National Chapter:

Presentation of the UK National Chapter at the CoARA National Chapters Exchange Forum 2024 (zenodo.org)

UK National Chapter Full Proposal

The UK National Chapter supports CoARA members and signatories to reflect on their ambitions for reform of research assessment and provides a space to discuss ways of bringing about this reform. By sharing our successes and lessons learned, we can work together to bring about meaningful change in our organisations and across the sector. The Chapter is open to, and will engage with, organisations outside of CoARA to communicate the benefits and implications of the agreement. Finally, the Chapter will support coordination of research assessment activities relevant to the UK, e.g. UK representation on CoARA Working Groups and sharing of outcomes. The UK National Chapter will provide a forum for UK organisations involved in research to put the CoARA principles into practice.

It has two primary objectives:

1. Facilitating meaningful change by supporting member and signatory organisations to reflect on ambitions for reform of research assessment and put principles into practice, e.g. through the development and implementation of action plans.
2. Promoting systemic reform by engaging with those outside of the Coalition and supporting potential UK CoARA members and signatories to understand the implications of signing and/or joining CoARA.

It is anticipated that this initial mission of the Chapter will expand as the number of UK CoARA members/signatories increases. In time and with proper resourcing, the remit of the Chapter could widen to address particular needs in the UK R&D sector. This could include supporting the development of a renewed UK Forum for Responsible Research Assessment (replacing the previous UK Forum for Responsible Research Metrics as recommended in ‘Harnessing the Metric Tide’). There are clear synergies between this and a CoARA National Chapter in terms of providing a forum for consultation, deliberation, advocacy and evidence-informed advice related to responsible research assessment.