Conference on reforming research assessment output: Ten common pitfalls to avoid

Download the PDF: Top 10 Ways to Fail at Reform - or A Guide to What to Avoid

The CeRRA High Level EU Conference on research assessment reform gathered 300 participants from across the globe in Copenhagen on 3-4 December 2025 for lively discussions on how to reform research assessment. In the past decade, different movements such as DORA (San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessement) and CoARA (Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment) have made a great effort to achieve a better, fairer  and more sustainable research assessment system for the benefit of society. Several research performing and funding organisations are actively working on revising for example their criteria and processes for promotion and funding, including Independent Research Fund Denmark. 

The conference breakout session on Leadership for Change explored a reverse perspective on reform: how efforts to change research assessment can fail, and what institutions can learn from such experiences. The session began with panelists sharing reflections on lessons and challenges learned from their own reform processes. The session brought together representatives from key research-performing and research-funding institutions in Europe and beyond that have been actively engaged in developing and implementing new metrics, indicators and assessment frameworks. Through peer learning and exchange of experience, the discussions highlighted the importance of integrity, rigor, quality and impact in science, while acknowledging that reform processes often involve both progress and setbacks.

Download the PDF: How to Fail at Reform – or A Guide to What to Avoid

Building on this, participants were invited to take part in a reverse brainstorming exercise, identifying ways in which reform efforts risk failing. The aim was to surface common pitfalls that leaders and institutions should seek to avoid.

Based on 58 inputs from the participants, the contributions from the session were consolidated into a list of ten common and critical pitfalls, presented to give the reader a guide to what to avoid when leading reform of research assessment. 

Several of the identified pitfalls relate specifically to research cultures and academic practice, including disciplinary diversity, academic power dynamics, and differing understandings of what constitutes meaningful work for researchers and assessors. The guide emphasises that research communities do not change uniformly or at the same pace, and that successful reform requires attention to local contexts, dialogue and leadership by example.

Independent Research Fund Denmark was a part of the conference’s programme committee, and organiser of the Leadership for change breakout session, which was co-chaired by the fund’s Board Chair, Søren Serritzlew, alongside representatives from European research funding and research-performing organisations. 

The organisers would like to thank the panelists, chairs and participants for their active engagement and valuable contributions to the session and its outcome.

More information about the conference is available on the CeRRA website: https://www.cerra.aau.dk/

Panelists and chairs

Panelist
Dr Kathrine Bjerg Bennike, Specialist Consultant, Aalborg University
Mr Poul Meier Melchiorsen, Senior Consultant, Aalborg University
Prof. Hester Bijl, Rector Magnificus, Leiden University
Prof. Peter Aronsson, Vice-Chancellor, Linnaeus University
Dr Paula Adam, Director, Research Lab, Agency for Health Quality and Assessment of Catalonia
Prof. Kelly Cobey, Chair, DORA, University of Ottawa

Chairs
Dr Sean Sapcariu, Programme Manager, Luxembourg National Research Fund
Prof. Søren Serritzlew, Board Chair, Independent Research Fund Denmark