OPUS Deliverable 2.2 Baseline Audit of Interventions to Test in the Pilots

The OPUS project is developing coordination and support measures for organisations to reform research assessment, with a focus on recognising and rewarding researchers for Open Science. The main aim of the project is to develop a framework for researcher assessment, consisting of indicators/ metrics with a focus on Open Science and corresponding interventions for organisations to implement the framework. These will be tested in pilots and refined in consultation with the research community.

This report1 is deliverable D2.2 of the OPUS project on Baseline Audit of Interventions to Test in the Pilots. The report builds on D2.1 on Interventions to Test in the Pilots, which proposed a first draft series of interventions to support implementation of a researcher assessment framework (RAF). The report also builds on D3.1 on Indicators and metrics to test in the Pilots, which outlined a framework of indicators and metrics that research performing organisations (RPOs) and research funding organisations (RFOs) could select from, to assess researchers and recognise and reward Open Science in researcher assessment. The report presents the interventions selected by each pilot organisation of the OPUS project, put into their institutional context along with targets for when they will be implemented. The report is closely aligned with D3.2 on Baseline Audit of Indicators and Metrics to Test in the Pilots, which similarly presents the indicators/metrics selected by each of the pilot organisation and their corresponding baseline and targets for the individual pilots.

The report has been developed in collaboration with the organisations running pilots in the OPUS project (Table 1.1). The three RPOs (UNL, UCY, and UNIRI) and two RFOs (UEFISCDI and RCL) selected and tailored interventions from D2.1 and corresponding indicators from D3.1 to test in each pilot. The pilot period in the OPUS project runs for 18 months (M) from January 2024 until June 2025. Pilot progress will be monitored and supported with an interim evaluation at M9 and final evaluation at M18. This report presents for each pilot the (1) scope (2) selection of interventions (3) baseline of selected interventions at M0 (4) targets for selected interventions at M9 (5) targets for selected interventions at M18.

Table 1.1: Pilot Organisations in the OPUS Project

The report structure is based on the pilots and begins with a description of the methodology to carry out the baseline audit and set the targets for the selected interventions and indicators/metrics for the pilots in Section 2. The report next presents each pilot, together with their baseline and targets for their selected interventions at M9 and M18 (UNL in Section 3, UCY in Section 4, UNIRI in in Section 5, UEFISCDI in Section 6, and RCL in Section 7). Lastly, the report offers some conclusions and proposes next steps for the OPUS project in Section 8. It should be noted hereby that the report does not go into detail on the implementation of selected interventions and indicators/metrics in the pilots as this will be presented in action plans describing the pilots by each of the pilot organisations.