Contributions of early career researchers to reforming research assessment via OPUS, SECURE and CoARA

Presentation at the 11th UNICA scholarly communication seminar

https://www.unica-network.eu/event/11th-unica-scholarly-communication-seminar/

Abstract:
Research assessment is a pivotal factor to the careers of doctoral candidates and junior researchers, thereby shaping the daily lives and practices. As such a fundamental element, reforming research assessment practices represents a priority for early career researchers to reduce precarity and enhance the academic endeavor overall. The European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers has therefore been actively engaged over the past years to foster ongoing reforms and developments, and still continues to do so particularly in three ongoing actions.
In the Open and Universal Science (OPUS) project, we supported research funding organisations (RFOs) and research perfoming organisations (RPOs) in the development of tools, indicators and metrics to implement and incentivize Open Science. Together, these form a Researcher Assessment Framework (RAF) in two flavors – as a generic framework and an open science RAF.
In the Sustainable Careers for Researcher Empowerment (SECURE) project, a SECURE research career framework (RCL) and principles for Tenure Track-Like Models (TTLMs) were created. Both the RCF and TTLMs are highly intertwined with advancing research assessment to ensure shaping a sustainable research environment.
In the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (COARA), we are active to represent the perspecive of early career researchers and in particular, we lead the Working Group for Early and Mid-Career Researchers, which based on the current status quo across Europe looks into the Monitoring the impact of assessment practices onto EMCRs, Training activities to support EMCRs along the assessment reforms, Training of assessors, and Fostering a positive culture change.
In the presentation, we will explore the approaches in the three mentioned actions and their outputs thus far.