Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA)
The University of Liege signs the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) - April 2022
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n recent years, the University of Liège has developed a policy of excellence, encompassing research, teaching and service to society, academic freedom, support for open science and scientific integrity, well-being and flexibility at work, career development and recognition of achievements. The evaluation of research and researchers has been reviewed to improve the simplification and transparency of processes, fairness, impartiality and the intrinsic value of researchers and scientific output.
The university authorities and the research councils, in consultation with the researchers, have developed guidelines for the evaluation of projects and individuals in which not only are results taken into account, but a more qualitative, integrated and 'talent' oriented overall perspective has been developed. The aim was to open up new avenues for developing ambitious long-term visions at individual and collective levels and to encourage excellence, interdisciplinary collaboration and the valorisation of research in all disciplines and forms.
The university has included the evaluation of research and researchers in its strategic action plan and in the Human Resources Strategy for Research (HRS4R) action plan. There is a desire to further formalise the process by signing the San Francisco Declaration1. On the one hand, this declaration serves as a basis for constructing evaluation criteria for many relevant funding schemes, be it at the regional, national or international levels. On the other hand, the recent efforts of the University of Liège on these issues lead it almost automatically to a convergence with the recommendations for institutions, namely transparency in the recruitment criteria, the importance given to quality criteria (and not only bibliometric ones), and finally the consideration of research results in all their forms, of all the talents of the researcher being evaluated 2.
By signing the declaration, the University commits itself to continue to promote the culture of qualitative research assessment in the long term and to recognise the intrinsic quality of researchers' work and the impact of research results. Researchers will be supported in presenting their CVs and work in this way, both for internal career development and for applying for ambitious external funding 3.
1 As a member of CREF, ULiège supported the signing of DORA by the FNRS in March 2022.
2 Read articles 4 and 5 of the declaration: https://sfdora.org/read/
3 As for example ERC projects, evaluated based upon DORA recommendations:
https://erc.europa.eu/news/erc-2022-work-programme
