Cascade Funding Benificiaries

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Overview

25 Projects Selected in First Round of Cascade Funding

In April 2024, the first round of projects were selected as part of the first call for Cascade Funding. The Cascade Funding Programme aims to support institutions in their efforts to implement committments of the Agreement and reform research assessment practices within their organisations. The call targeted individual institutions within the European Research Area.

Types of Projects

The Cascade Funding Programme supports three types of projects—Institutional Pilot Projects, Teaming Projects, and Institutional Change Projects—to meet institutions at different stages in their reform journeys:

Institutional Pilot Projects allow organizations to test new assessment models and approaches in targeted areas, fostering experimentation with tools like IT workflows, qualitative KPIs, and open science metrics. Each project may receive up to €30,000, with a one-year duration.
Teaming Projects facilitate knowledge exchange between organizations with different levels of expertise, enabling mutual growth and best practice sharing. These projects are funded up to €40,000 for one year.
Institutional Change Projects support more comprehensive reform by refining or creating new assessment structures aligned with the commitments of the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment. These projects can receive up to €60,000 for a one-year term.

Cascade Funding Beneficiaries - First Call

Based on the decision of CoARA’s evaluation panels, the below 25 selected projects are currently underway:

Institutional Pilot Projects

Centria University of Applied Sciences	CENTRIA COMPETENCES
University of Coimbra	TREASURE: Transforming Research Assessment through Responsible Research training of Early Stage Researchers: A pilot study
Association of Healthcare Researcher, Italy (ARSI)	Impact-based assessment of the translational research in the Italian research hospitals
Health Sciences University	Catalysing research assessment reform in a small and specialist university: Reimagining our Academic Framework and evaluating its implementation in a revised academic performance review exercise
Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona	Piloting new approaches and metrics for research assessment: A first step for a real transformation
ELTE Eötvös Loránd University	Participatory Diversification of Research Assessment in the Humanities: A Citizens’ Council approach
Leeds Trinity University	Assessing the quality of ‘non-standard’ research outputs in Business and Management: an institutional pilot study
Middle East Technical University	Qualitative KPIs Tailored for Creative Industries: A Pilot Study on Film-Making, Wearables, and Game Development
Ramon Llull University	Towards a Qualitative Paradigm: Rethinking Research and Researchers Assessment at Blanquerna, Universitat Ramon Llull- ReAss
Fundació Centre de Regulació Genòmica	Impact Narratives for biomedical research: a Co-creation Approach to fair implementation
Swansea University	Evaluating the Impact of Reformed Research Assessment and the use of Narrative CV’s in Academic Career Promotion at Swansea University
Sofia University St Kliment Ohridski	Advancing Sofia University St Klimen Ohridski’s Research Assessment Towards Open Research (AURA)

Teaming Projects

Organisation	Project Title
University of Rijeka, University of Cyprus, European Office of Cyprus	Open Science Collaboration for Research Career Advancement and Policy Innovation at UNIRI and UCY OSCAR
University of Oulu, Ruhr University Bochum, Tampere University	CoARA ExPECT – Exchange & Promote Evaluation Criteria Changes Together
University of Carthage (UCAR) – National Institute of Applied Science and Technology (INSAT), Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC)	Reforming Research Assessment in the University of Carthage Towards a Qualitative Original Approach, Multidisciplinary Model and Sustainable Procedures

Institutional Change Projects

Amsterdam UMC	IDEA: Integrating Diversity in Evaluation and Assessment of Researchers – Experiences from Amsterdam
Czech Academy of Sciences	New Assessment Tools for Internal Programs of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Politecnico di Torino	FEDRA – An institutional FAIR data lakE for transparent, inclusive, and reproDucible Research Assessment
Fundació per a la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya	ECE4CoARA – Effective Community Engagement for a successful CoARA action plan implementation at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC): a community engagement case study at institutional level
Ilia State University	Linking the Individual and Collective Responsibility: Transforming the Research Planning and Evaluation Culture
University of Graz	Managing the cultural transition associated with research assessment reform
University of Gdańsk	Reform of researchers’ assessment in the University of Gdańsk
Häme University of Applied Sciences	Strengthening the Qualitative Criteria for the Researcher Assessment at Häme University of Applied Sciences
Steinbeis Transfer Center Solar Thermal Energy Systems	Transforming Research Assessment at the Steinbeis Transfer Center – An Integrated Approach to Responsible and Impactful Evaluation
Joanneum Research Forschungsgesellschaft mbh	Reforming Assessment Policies and Practices at Joanneum Research

As these projects launch, we anticipate transformative developments that will inform and inspire further change across the research community. We look forward to sharing more updates on the projects, as well as the results from the second call later in 2025!

Reviewers

The maximum of 25 projects out of 72 applications were selected after careful evaluation by expert reviewer panels. The selections would not be possible without the dedicated effort of reviewers who offered their time and expertise to provide thorough assessment of each application. We want to extend a huge thank you to them! Their insights also contribute to shaping the second call, to be opened in mid February 2025.

Reviewers contributing to the first call:

Professor Alis Oancea	University of Oxford
Professor Dominik Antonowicz	Nicolaus Copernicus University
Professor Emanuele Conte	Università Roma Tre
Dr. Mira Söderman	Federation of Finnish Learned Societies
Ms. Olivia Denk	Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences
Dr. Tim Engels	University of Antwerp
Professor Ludo Waltman	Leiden University
Ms. Grace Murkett	University of Strathclyde
Dr. Oleksandr Berezko	Institute for Open Science and Innovation
Ms. Iryna Kuchma	EIFL
Mr. Jeroen Bosman	Utretcht University
Professor João Claro	INESC TEC
Dr. Kathrine Bennike	Aalborg University Library
Mr. Lennart Stoy	Technopolis Group
Dr. Marta Agostinho	EU-LIFE Alliance of Independent Research Institutes in Europe
Dr. Matthias Kiesselbach	DFG (German Research Foundation / Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft)
Professor Mikael Laakso	Tampere University
Professor Andreja Istenič	University of Primorska
Mr. Clifford Tatum	CWTS (Centre for Science and Technology Studies)
Professor Cameron neylon	Curtin University
Professor Fabien Borget	Aix-Marseille Université
Dr. Francesca Di Donato	CNR
Dr. Giuliana Sabbatini	St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences
Dr. Hannelore Vanhaverbeke	KU Leuven
Professor Ricardo Migueis	INESC
Dr. Sybille Hinze	Berlin University Alliance
Dr. Tony Ross-Hellauer	Know-Center Research GmbH
Professor Bruno Béu	Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT)
Dr. David O’Connell	University College Cork
Dr. Ioana Spanache	UEFISCDI – Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding
Professor Jadranka Stojanovski	University of Zadar
Professor Katarzyna Nawrot	Polish Academy of Sciences, Committee of Future Studies
Professor Ladislav Kristoufek	Charles University
Dr. Michael Ochsner	University of Lausanne
Mr. Ragnar Lie	Universities Norway