Uptake of the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment across Higher Education Institutions in Europe

This is a presentation made at the RESSH2025 conference 19 May 2025 in Helsinki. Aims and dataThe aim of this work-in-progress study is to better understand the uptake of CoARA (and other RRA initiatives) across Higher Education Institutions (HEI) in Europe. While it is well-known that there are large differences in number of CoARA member organisations across different European countries, this study seeks to address the following questions:1. What share of HEIs are members of CoARA across European countries?a. What share of HEIs with different relative specialization in natural sciences and engineering are members of CoARA across European countries?b. What share of HEIs with different institutional control (public/private) are members of CoARA across European countries?2. What share of research intensive HEIs in Europe are members of CoARA?3. What share of HEIs are members of COARA and/or have the HR in Excellence award?4. What share of HEIs are DORA signatories, and how large share are engaged with 1, 2 or 3 of the initiatives (CoARA, HR Excellence, DORA) The study is based on ETER data combined with four other data sources:1. CoARA member data: 732 member organisations (extracted 17 May 2025) 2. ETER data: 4079 HEIs (exported 16 May 2025)3. Leiden Ranking Open Edition 2024: 468 major European universities (extracted November 2024)4. HR Excellence data: 735 organisations awarded the HR Excellence label (extracted November 2024)5. DORA data: 1127 signatory organisations from Europe (extracted 1 May 2025) Preliminary resultsWhat share of HEIs are members of CoARA across Europe?• 14.6 % of 2832 HEIs with ROR in ETER are CoARA members. There are, however, large differences between countries and regions of Europe. o Natural sciences and engineering specialization decreases the share of CoARA member HEIso Larger share public (18 %) than private (4 %) HEIs are CoARA membersWhat share of research intensive HEIs in Europe are members of CoARA?• 45.3 % of HEIs included in the Leiden Ranking Open Edition are CoARA members. What share of HEIs are members of COARA and/or have the HR in Excellence award? • 14.9 % of 2832 HEIs with ROR in ETER have HR Excellence label.• Overall, 7.1 % of 2513 HEIs with ROR are only CoARA members, 6.2 % are both CoARA members and have HR in Excellence label, and 8.2 % have only HR Excellence label. What share of HEIs are DORA signatories, and how large share are engaged with 1, 2 or 3 of the initiatives (CoARA, HR Excellence, DORA)• 7.8 % of 2832 HEIs with ROR in ETER are DORA signatories.• In all, 24.4 % 2832 HEIs with ROR in ETER 2.0 are engaged with at least one of the three initiatives: 2.0 % are engaged with all 3 initiative, 8.0 % are engaged with 2 initiatives and 14.4 % are engaged with one of the initiatives. ReferencesCurry, S., de Rijcke, S., Hatch, A., Pillay, D., van der Weijden, I. & Wilsdon, J. (2020). The changing role of funders in responsible research assessment: progress, obstacles and the way ahead. Research on Research Institute. Report. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.13227914.v1European Commission (2005). The European Charter for Researchers – The Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/sites/default/files/brochures/am509774cee_en_e4.pdfEuropean Commission (2023). Council recommendation of 19 December 2023 on a European framework to attract and retain research, innovation and entrepreneurial talents in Europe. (C/2023/1640), https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:C_202301640Peruginelli, G. & Pölönen, J. (2023). The legal foundation of responsible research assessment: An overview on European Union and Italy. Research Evaluation 32(4): 670–682. https://doi.org/10.1093/reseval/rvad035Rushforth, A. & Hammarfelt, B. (2022). The Rise of ‘Responsible Metrics’ as a Professional Reform Movement: A Collective Action Frames Perspective. SocArXiv, December 10. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/cdmqz