Provost Christine Nellemann is now launching the "Impact in many ways" programme. The programme comprises five projects that, over the next three years, will develop a transparent, inclusive, and future-proof practice for evaluating researchers and research. A practice that will reward diverse contributions to DTU's core tasks—research, teaching, consulting, and innovation.
"At DTU, we create technology for people, society, and the planet, and our research must have the greatest possible impact. This requires excellent research and equally excellent researchers who contribute new angles, broad perspectives, and innovative solutions to complex societal challenges," says Christine Nellemann.
"By recognizing and rewarding a variety of competence profiles and career paths, we ensure that DTU can continue to attract and retain the most talented researchers and maintain its position as a leading international technical university."
Towards a broader understanding of excellence
Existing practices for research evaluation and researcher merit assessment have traditionally focused on bibliometric targets such as the number of publications and citations. However, we must follow the global trend in the research world, which is moving towards qualitative forms of evaluation, says Christine Nellemann:
"This could include, for example, recognising teaching and the development of new teaching formats to an even greater extent than today, recognising contributions to Open Science, interdisciplinary collaborations, research to support legislation or participation in public debate on technological development. It could also be recognising researchers' commitment to putting their knowledge to use in academic peer reviews, participation in international research councils, collaboration with industry and, not least, contributing to the public debate with knowledge and evidence," explains Nellemann, continuing:
"Of course, we must still recognize a high H-index and important fundamental discoveries, but if we are to ensure the high quality of research we have at DTU and that our research and knowledge make a difference to as many people as possible, we must work towards a broader understanding of what excellence is and develop the right framework to reward more contributions and activities accordingly."
CoARA as a framework
DTU has joined the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA), an EU initiative aimed at reforming research assessment internationally and promoting the development of a more inclusive and responsible research culture globally.
CoARA is based on a set of fundamental principles: freedom of research, ethics and integrity, openness and transparency, and open science. The CoARA principles form the basis for the work on the projects in the Impact programme in many ways.
"The CoARA principles provide us with an international and widely recognised framework on which to model DTU's solution. CoARA is a global movement that brings together universities, research councils, foundations, and funding bodies around the world, and therefore, we at DTU must move in the same direction to keep up with developments," explains Christine Nellemann.
The programme strengthens DTU's talent development, sustainability, and impact
New evaluation criteria and uniform practices will bring about changes in the research environments and for DTU as an organisation. But this is a necessary path if DTU is to remain competitive in attracting national and international research funding and strengthen its strategic efforts in talent development, sustainability, and societal impact, emphasises provost Christine Nellemann in conclusion:
"It is necessary to develop DTU in this direction if we are to secure our position as an internationally elite technical university. I know that some of DTU's departments and centres are already working with broader evaluation and merit criteria. This is very good and supports the need for us as a university to have a common, systematic, and uniform practice."
