For the first time since the constitutive assembly in December 2022, the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) assembles its members to reflect on the first six months, discuss the strategy moving forward in further rolling out the coalition and its objectives.
On the 23rd of June 2023 CoARA assembled its members for a General Assembly – the highest decision-making body within the bottom-up community-driven coalition. The agenda was packed with a first reflection of the activities completed in the first six months since the coalition’s inception; CoARA’s global outreach ambitions; votes by the CoARA members, and guest speakers including Laura Rovelli representing the Latin American Forum for Research Assessment (CLACSO) and Chelle Gentemann the lead of NASA’s Transform to Open Science Mission (TOPS) and co-chair of the White House Office for Science and Technology and Policy (OSTP) subcommittee on the year of open science.
Source: Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) General Assembly 23/06/2023
Activities within the first six months since the coalition’s inauguration
Notably since the constitutive assembly in December 2022, the CoARA membership has grown and so the participation at the General Assembly (see: Coalition with growing support: CoARA exceeds 500 member organisations). Within the first months, CoARA’s main objectives have been building of operational infrastructure and establishing mechanisms to bring members together to facilitate knowledge exchange. In order to maneuvering various workstreams, the establishment of subgroups played a significant role. The launch of the first CoARA call for Working Group and National Chapter proposals represents a key step in the coalition’s response to the need of reforming research assessment and the later establishment of groups and chapters a central mechanism in bringing members together and working collaboratively on the future of research assessment (see: First Call for Working Groups and National Chapters).
Source: Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) General Assembly 23/06/2023 – Subgroups CoARA operational structure (WG= Working Groups; NC= National Chapters)
Global outreach ambitions
It is CoARA’s ambition to count at least one member on each continent by the end of 2023. But the coalition’s outreach objectives will not stop here: by 2025 organisations from all categories (universities; research centres, infrastructures, academies, learned societies & researchers, public or private research funding organisations, national & regional authorities or agencies that implement some form of research assessment, other relevant not-for-profit organisations) from all continents have signed the agreement and joined the coalition; and by 2027 CoARA manifests a significant representation of all continents as signatories and members. To achieve these objectives, CoARA seeks connections with existing global RRA groups; identifies and attends existing continental scientific society conferences and rectors’ conferences to promote CoARA’s mission and gain new members. In this regard, as of today, the CoARA Steering Board completed 70+ speaking opportunities and more are scheduled to represent and disseminate CoARA’s values and to facilitate change in research culture.
Under the umbrella of internationalisation, with great appreciation CoARA was pleased to welcome two guest speakers to the General Assembly. Dr. Laura Rovelli from the Latin American Forum for Research Assessment (CLACSO) and Dr. Chelle Gentemann the Lead of NASA’s Transform to Open Science Mission and co-chair of the White House Office for Science and Technology and Policy (OSTP) subcommittee on the Year of Open Science.
Dr. Rovelli addressed the synergies between CoARA’s mission and the Latin American Forum for Research Assessment (CLACSO).
Source: Dr. Laura Rovelli FOLEC CLACSO presented at the General Assembly Meeting
CoARA’s mission to systematically reform the way research is assessed on the basis of common principles is an ambitious one, yet growing CoARA membership numbers encouraging. It was good to be reminded by NASA TOPS lead Dr. Gentemann “to push the boundaries what is possible, but we need to work together to be successful”. Dr. Gentemann underscored the alignment between NASA’s Transform to Open Science 5 year mission plan and CoARA’s, and emphasised NASA’s hopes to achieve the TOPS mission with the support of CoARA members.
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