TOWARDS A STRATEGIC VIEW OF RESEARCH ASSESSMENT: THE COARA ITALIAN NATIONAL CHAPTER 2026-27

In Italy, the launch of the research evaluation reform has been met with interest by various institutions. Over the past three years, a network of universities, research centres, learned societies, associations and others has developed through active engagement in the National Chapter of the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA NC ITA). Efforts to plan the implementation of the shared principles and values of the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment (ARRA) have benefited from diverse mutual learning experiences, but it also encountered a series of difficulties and obstacles, that see collaboration and joint action with the ministries that fund research and with the evaluation agency as a possible solution.

Over the next two years, CoARA NC ITA aims to build on the results achieved during the 2023–2025 period, drawing on the existing network of relationships, activities, and documents, and to strengthen relationships with Ministries, Working Groups, and National Chapters of other countries, as well as to share best practices adopted by NC members.

The planned activities for CoARA NC ITA are:

·       Consolidate the active network among Italian institutions, promoting the monitoring of the Institutional Action Plans requested by CoARA;

·       Maintaining stable and bidirectional connections with the thematic COARA Working Groups, to explore the impact of their results on national practices and provide a feedback based on the experiences of the Italian communities on more specific topics; alignment and collaboration are foreseen with thematic working groups such as TIER-inclusive evaluation, multilingualism, peer review, biomedical disciplines, ethics, etc…); organize periodic updates on WG activities by WG members, and encourage active participation (new action);

·       Strengthen interaction and collaboration with the other National Chapters, by organizing joint thematic workshops and webinars on cross-cutting topics and developing shared tools, such as templates for reporting and monitoring progress on CoARA commitments, with at least two NCs;

·       Engage with the Ministries that primarily conduct research evaluations at various levels, MUR and Ministry of Health, for the implementation of the Agreement's principles in our country (new action). Promote institutional exchanges with the two ministries through regular communications and targeted meetings.

·       Establish connections with other European initiatives related to research evaluation (e.g. Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information), since Transparency and openness of research processes and data are essential for fair, cross-disciplinary, understandable, and reproducible evaluation.

The work is split into three work packages: WP1, for coordination, engagement and reinforcement of the NC, resulting in Policy Briefs; WP2, for coordination with the CoARA WGs and the other NCs, activities include organizing events and providing reports; WP3 dedicated to the thematic of open and qualitative research information for a more transparent evaluation, producing dissemination events on the principles of open research information, recommendations and guidelines.

The contribution aims to provide an overview of the ongoing work of the National Chapter Italy and the reference coordinates for any new interested organization.