CoARA Action Plan for the ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences

The ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) has become a member of the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) at the end 2022. In accordance with the commitments of this membership, the ZHAW has drafted an action plan outlining the conceptualisation, testing and implementation of changes in research assessment practices until the end of 2027. The ZHAW is a university of applied sciences and has chosen focus areas in accordance with the nature of our research activities. In particular, we have identified 3 levels and 4 dimensions that are of particular relevance to us: hence our action plan is running under the headline “addressing three levels and four dimensions”. We have found partners across Switzerland and Europe who are willing to discuss and develop these levels and dimensions with us. We thus have been able to be included in the first wave of CoARA working groups and will potentially participate in further such groups.
The levels of research assessment we will consider are: the researcher, organizational units within the university, and the university as a whole. The four dimensions we want to focus our discussion on are: assessment of practice-based / transdisciplinary research and development and its impact, integration of Open Science (OS) contributions into research assessments, the responsible use of quantitative research assessment indicators, and career assessment of researchers. We have identified 11 Milestones we will work on until the end of 2027.