Proposal for CoARA's Italian National Chapter 2025-2027

1 Proposal for CoARA’s Italian National Chapter 2025-2027 CoARA Italian National chapter; Monica Di Luca (UniMI), Giuliana Rubbia (INGV), Alessandro Carosi (INGV), Anna Grazia Chiodetti (INGV), Federica Cappelluti (PoliTO), Marta Ruspa (UniUPO), Federica Fioravanti (UniFE), Alessandra Cerato PoliTO), Matteo Millan UniPD), Donatella Tamagno (SNS), Francesca Di Donato (CNR), Francesca Masini (UniBO), Paola Galimberti (UniMI) Submitted 3 October 2025 – Accepted 7 November 2025 Country Italy Contact details of the main National Chapter proposer Monica Di Luca (University of Milan); Giuliana Rubbia (INGV) List member organisations proposing the National Chapter University of Milan (UniMI) Istituto nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) Short description of the mission and objectives of the group, and of how it fits with the overall CoARA vision In the period 2022-2024 the National Chapter, ESTABLISHED AS A SOLID NETWORK OF ACADEMIA AND RESEARCH CENTERS, achieved a series of important results, including: i) the creation of the Italian website, ii) the translation of the Agreement, iii) a coherent alignment with the COARA WGs iv) the organization of a series of national thematic webinars on various aspects of evaluation. The new proposal will represent a consolidation and an extension of the efforts of the previous years; the main aims of the Italian National Chapter will be as follows: (i) enable mutual learning, share best practices, and raise awareness of best responsible assessment practices and indicators in the national community on the ongoing research assessment reform (CoARA commitments 7-8), and (ii) foster the discussion (especially with Ministries that fund research) about the reviewing and development of assessment criteria, tools and processes for assessing research institutions, individual researchers and projects (CoARA commitment 6) even benefiting from the documents produced over the last two years by the Coara working groups. This outreach effort will support the implementation of the reform at the national level and will contribute to the implementation of the agreement’s principles at a National level. The main activities will be focused on: 1) creating an active network among Italian institutions, promoting the monitoring of the Institutional Action Plans requested by CoARA; 2 2) maintaining stable and bidirectional connections with the COARA Working Groups, to explore the impact of their results on national practices and provide a feedback based on the experiences of the Italian communities on more specific topics; 3) strengthen interaction and collaboration with the other NCs, by organizing joint thematic workshops and webinars on cross-cutting topics and developing shared tools, such as templates for reporting and monitoring progress on CoARA commitments 4) strengthen interaction and collaboration with Ministries responsible for research evaluation (in Italy Health and University and Research); 5) establish connections with other European initiatives related to research evaluation (e.g. Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information). Expected impact notably expected adoption and implementation scenarios The Italian presence in the Coalition is prominent and diverse, including 69 institutions and stakeholders (as of November 2025), among which 50 “Universities and their associations”, 11 “Research centres, research infrastructures, and their associations”, 5 “Academies, learned societies, and their associations, and associations of researchers”, 1 “National/regional authorities or agencies that implement some form of research assessment and their associations” (i.e., ANVUR, the Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of Italian Universities and Research Institutes), and 2 “Other relevant non-for-profit organisations involved with research assessment, and their associations”. The expected impact of the National Chapter on the Italian research community is therefore wide and aims at reaching also those actors that are not yet CoARA members (see point 10), allowing them both to contribute and benefit from the activities of the National Chapter. As participation is broad, we intend to organise the activities in Work Packages that are related to the main objectives of the National Chapter. Some work packages will continue and strengthen the activities launched over the past two years, but new activities will also be introduced, creating spaces for discussion and sharing of the difficulties encountered in implementing roadmaps (especially related to the national assessment procedures), best practices and evidence of positive effects. Since not all institutions belonging to the NC have yet adopted an Action Plan, the NC will make it a priority to encourage all members to do so. Added value of the National Chapter over and above what is currently being done within the country This proposal is in line with what has already been done over the past two years by the National Chapter and can benefit from and build on the results achieved (https://www.coaraitalia.it/risultati/). The debate on research evaluation and the importance of prioritizing quality over quantity is also present in Italy, albeit with some contradictions. The Ministry of University still tends to rely mainly on quantitative indicators while showing some willingness to consider different models. The Health Ministry, which funds biomedical research, relies totally on quantitative indicators, with a clear impact on those researchers working in universities and hospitals. The NC will act as a coordinating body between the signatory institutions, ministries, and the national evaluation agency, ANVUR (which is one of the signatories of COARA and has published its AP). Crucially, ANVUR is responsible for the National evaluation of research quality (VRQ), an exercise based on informed peer review: ANVUR has already formally committed to this in the call 3 and in all meetings organised for the scientific communities. The NC will also promote initiatives and exchanges among participants and act as an incubator to encourage good practices and reforms at university level (see WP3), it will foster interactions between different communities involved in research assessment and scholarly communication (learned societies, funders, researchers associations, etc.). Work plan and outputs / deliverables, that can be accomplished within two years: The proposed Work plan is divided into 3 main Work Packages, and over a period of 2 years, starting from November 2025: WP1: Coordination, engagement and reinforcement of the National Chapter (M1-M24) Task 1.1. Coordination and management This task aims at both internal and external coordination. Internally, activities include: identification of the task leaders; definition and implementation of processes, flows and work tools, timing; involvement of the relevant Ministries. Externally, the activities will be: communication and information exchange with other national and international actors (working groups, associations, projects, NCs etc.); Task 1.2. Institutional Roadmaps: monitoring This activity is specifically dedicated to prosecute the monitoring the work of Italian CoARA members in the definition and updating of their institutional Action Plans. It also includes the monitoring of the results. Task 1.3. Communication and engagement This task includes activities like webinars and face-to-face seminars also for currently underrepresented stakeholders (for example, scientific communities, early stage researchers, PhD students, funders, practice partners, learned societies, researchers associations, etc.). This task will be dedicated specifically to describing case studies and roadmap implementations. Deliverables WP1: The NC will aim to foster a structured dialogue with Ministries and national agencies by preparing regular policy briefs based on evidence collected from institutional Action Plans, pilot projects, case studies, as well as from the reflections developed within the Italian National Chapter. These briefs will serve as a tool to facilitate their active involvement and to inform ongoing policy making [M12; M24]). WP2: Coordination with the CoARA Working Groups and the other National Chapters (M1-M24) Task 2.1. Coordination and alignment with selected CoARA Working Groups (vertical) This task aims at gathering input from and returning feedback to the present WGs and to the WGs that will be approved within CoARA by the end of 2025. Task 2.2. Coordination with other CoARA National Chapters (horizontal) This task aims at gathering input from and returning feedback to the other NCs established, with the 4 possibility of organising at least one joint event or participating in each other's national events, identifying at least one cross-cutting topic and co-organize workshops or webinars involving different NCs. The purpose of the meetings will also be mutual learning and contributing to the formation of a coherent European framework. Task 2.3. Presentation and dissemination of the results of active WGs This task aims at organising training seminars on the results and activities conducted within the COARA WGs. All materials will be openly available and released with a CC licence as OERs on the CoARA website. Where possible, attempts will be made to contextualize the results within institutional and national processes (e.g., multilingualism or peer review). Deliverables WP2 D 2.1: Reports on Task 2.3 events (M12-M24) D2.2: One joint event with other NC (France?) (M18) D2.3: One join event with at least one active WG (e.g. TIER) (M8) WP3: Open and qualitative research information for a more transparent evaluation (M6-M24) The purpose of this group is to explore methodologies and tools that make the evaluation and monitoring of research activities and researchers more open and transparent. Task 3.1 - Dissemination events on the principles of open research information Output of Task 3.1 will be the presentation of 1-2 Case studies on implementation of ORI according to the principles of the Barcelona Declaration. Task 3.2 Recruitment: This task, started in the previous phase of the work (surveying local assessment methods), will be expanded to include activities related to the analysis of narrative CVs and their possible implementation in local recruitment and career progression procedures. Deliverable WP3 D 3.1: Report on lessons learned and recommendations (M24). D3.2: guidelines on narrative CVs and their possible implementation (possibly accompanied by current best practices)(M24) List of at least half of the CoARA member organisations from the country concerned that are interested in joining the group 1 Agenzia nazionale di valutazione del sistema universitario e della ricerca (ANVUR) 2 Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna 3 Associazione italiana per la promozione della scienza aperta (AISA) 4 Ca’ Foscari Università di Venezia 5 Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) 6 IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele 7 Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) 8 Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) 9 Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) 10 Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale (OGS) 5 11 Italian Reproducibility Network (ITRN) 12 IULM 13 Politecnico di Bari 14 Politecnico di Torino 15 Scuola IMT Lucca 16 Scuola Normale Superiore 17 Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna 18 Tuscan Organisation of Universities and Research for Europe (TOUR4EU) 19 Università "G. d'Annunzio" di Chieti-Pescara 20 Università Campus Biomedico di Roma 21 Università del Piemonte Orientale 22 Università dell’Aquila 23 Università dell'Insubria 24 Università della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli 25 Università della Tuscia 26 Università di Bergamo 27 Università di Brescia 28 Università di Cagliari 29 Università di Camerino 30 Università di Cassino e del Lazio meridionale 31 Università di Ferrara 32 Università di Firenze 33 Università di Macerata 34 Università di Messina 35 Università di Milano 36 Università di Milano-Bicocca 37 Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia 38 Università di Padova 39 Università di Palermo 40 Università di Pavia 41 Università di Pisa 42 Università di Torino 43 Università di Trento 44 Università di Trieste 45 Università di Urbino Carlo Bo 46 Università di Verona 47 Università per Stranieri di Siena 48 Università Politecnica delle Marche 49 Università Roma Tre 50 Università Suor Orsola Benincasa 51 AIDEA - Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale 52 Università di Catania 53 Associazione Ricercatori in Sanità - Italia (ARSI) 54 Center for Ethics in Science and Journalism 55 Università del Salento 56 Museo Galileo 6 The CoARA member organisations that expressed interest in joining the National Chapter so far amount to 56. Envisaged co-chairs leading the National Chapter Monica Di Luca (Università degli Studi di Milano) Giuliana Rubbia (INGV) Mechanisms to ensure that a broader range of organisations, including from outside CoARA, contribute to and benefit from the National Chapter The activities planned in WP1 (Coordination, engagement and expansion of the National Chapter) will ensure that a larger scientific community will be reached, beyond current CoARA’s borders. A specific task (Task 1.3) is dedicated to include and create a fruitful connection with currently under-represented stakeholders, like scientific communities, early stage researchers, PhD students, funders at the national and international level, practice partners, learned societies, researchers associations, etc. Fully aware of the need to align COARA principles with the practices of ministries that evaluate research, the next two years will be specifically dedicated to involving ministries in COARA activities through the presentation of case studies, implementations, and best practices. Envisaged support needed from the Secretariat 1. Support for the connection with other NCs 2. support for social communication; 3. support in reminding signatory institutions of their obligation to produce an action plan; 4. support for the publication of updated materials on the CoARA website; 5. organisation of a final event for National Chapters in order to support and contribute global implementation of reforming research assessment.