Madrid, 24 January 2024
The Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE), the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, the Spanish National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation (ANECA) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) have organised the the launch of the National Chapter Spain (NC) of the Coalition for the Advancement of Research Assessment and Evaluation (CoARA) in Europe on 9 February in Madrid. The President of CRUE and Rector of the Universitat Jaume I, Eva Alcón, will participate in the opening ceremony along with the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Universities, Juan Cruz Cigudosa; the President of CSIC, Eloísa del Pino, and the Director of ANECA, Pilar Paneque.
On this occasion, Rectors, Vice Rectors for Staffing or Research, Directors and representatives of national accreditation agencies, research centres and doctoral schools, among other experts, will come together in this event in which the National Chapter will be presented as part of the European movement for reforming research assessment. The aim is to analyse the national context in this framework, as well as the specific objectives and lines of work that the initiative seeks to achieve. Throughout several working sessions, different institutional experiences will be presented, and reform needs will be addressed, particularly with regards to evaluation challenges related with criteria and methodologies, awareness raising and training or multidisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity.
The aim of the National Chapter Spain is to support the process of research assessment reform in Spain. More specifically, and in line with the commitments of the CoARA Agreement, the Chapter aims to establish a joint initiative to promote and support the review and development of research evaluation criteria, tools and procedures in Spain through a co-creation process involving representatives from research centres, universities and quality agencies, whether they are part of CoARA or not. NC Spain also aims to generate a space for mutual learning nationally but also in collaboration with other national chapters and CoARA working groups in Europe.
Currently, a total of 84 Spanish institutions participate in this national initiative: 12 quality agencies, 11 research centres, one research funding body, two associations and 58 universities.
