The Netherlands launches CoARA National Chapter

By launching a National Chapter of the Coalition on Advancing Research Assessment, or CoARA, the Netherlands is taking the next step in a thriving international partnership. This should lead to further knowledge exchange and better alignment of CoARA with Dutch developments such as Recognition & Rewards and the Strategy Evaluation Protocol (SEP). Dutch knowledge institutions and research funding bodies joined CoARA in 2022 with the aim of assessing research in a more responsible way.

A National Chapter is a local branch of CoARA. Such a chapter helps members implement the 10 CoARA commitments for better research assessment in their country or region. The commitments include recognising the diversity of research contributions and using qualitative assessment criteria.

The new National Chapter will provide support to Dutch CoARA members. Among other things, it will organise meetings where members can share news about their progress and exchange knowledge and experiences. At the same time, the chapter will strengthen the Dutch voice within CoARA, sharing Dutch experiences with an international audience at CoARA events. All Dutch research universities and UMCs, the Dutch Research Council (NWO), the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMW), the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), Saxion University of Applied Sciences and Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences are members of the chapter.

A growing network

Over the past three years, CoARA has grown from a small club of enthusiasts to an international movement for reform. More than 700 organisations worldwide have joined the coalition, from Andorra to Zimbabwe. In addition, it now has 18 National Chapters, with Norway, the UK and France among the countries that preceded the Netherlands in establishing their own chapters.

Recognition & Rewards

CoARA’s goals dovetail seamlessly with the national Recognition & Rewards programme. With that in mind, Prof. Hilde Verbeek (Maastricht University) and Prof. Arfan Ikram (Erasmus MC/ZonMw) will chair the chapter. They are also members of the Recognition & Rewards steering group and will oversee close cooperation between the two initiatives.