Enhanced Researcher Profile - Integrating openness, diversity, and narrative elements in researcher profiles

Traditional research assessment systems have long relied on quantitative indicators related to publications and citations, often overlooking other essential dimensions of research practice — including data sharing, software development, mentoring, collaboration, and societal engagement. In the current international context of research assessment reform, inspired by the CoARA principles and the objectives of the GraspOS project, the Enhanced Researcher Profile prototype represents an effort to reimagine how researchers and their contributions can be presented and recognized in a more inclusive way. The mock-up builds upon BrainMap, the online community of researchers, innovators, technicians and entrepreneurs, which hosts over 63,000 user profiles from Romania and internationally. Entirely in English, BrainMap serves not only as a visibility and networking platform but was also developed by UEFISCDI as a key operational tool, to be used as a pool for selecting reviewers for national and international research calls. The new researcher profile mock-up (accessible here) reimagines the existing profile layout, by building on already existing elements within the BrainMap platform while introducing new structures inspired by narrative CVs. Sections such as “Summary” and “Main Achievements” allow researchers to articulate the significance and impact of their work beyond metrics, promoting a more contextualized representation of research careers. Moreover, the mock-up introduces two complementary innovations designed to capture the richness and diversity of researchers’ work. First, the “Contributions to Science and Society” section provides a comprehensive and structured overview of research activity, organized across multiple categories that reflect a broader spectrum of scholarly activities and societal engagement. Thus, the new profile distinguishes between diverse types of contributions, including Research (encompassing publications, datasets, research software, products etc.), Projects, Education (such as teaching activities, student supervision, and mentoring), Leadership (including coordination of teams or initiatives), Innovation (for example, patents, start-ups, or technology transfer), Communication and Engagement (public lectures, outreach, and media activities), Impact (covering societal, economic, environmental, and sustainability outcomes), and Reviewer activities (peer review for journals, grants, or conferences). Each of these categories is accessible through dedicated tabs, allowing users to explore contributions in detail while offering a holistic and transparent picture of a researcher’s career. Building on this foundation, the mock-up also introduces a dedicated “Openness” section, which functions as an integrative layer connecting contributions across all other categories. This section highlights and aggregates Open Science-related practices — for example, identifying open-access publications, openly shared datasets or software, and teaching or engagement activities that promote openness. In doing so, it reinforces the idea that openness is a cross-cutting dimension of responsible research. Together, these features enable a more comprehensive, inclusive, and dynamic representation of researchers’ work, acknowledging both the diversity of contributions and the central role of openness in advancing scientific and societal progress. The prototype’s development has been guided by the Research Assessment Framework (RAF) elaborated within the OPUS project, as well as by CoARA and Open Science guidelines. The mock-up was tested with over 400 researchers from various disciplines, in two dedicated workshops, to refine its usability and explore its potential further improvement. The initiative is implemented by UEFISCDI, Romania’s main funder of competitive research, and a policy advisor to the Ministry of Education and Research, as part of its pilot activities within the GraspOS project – Next Generation Research Assessment to Promote Open Science. UEFISCDI also plays a key role in facilitating dialogue with research and innovation communities and aligning national reforms with European and global Open Science and assessment transformation efforts.