A new protocol to assess researchers

A new protocol to assess researchers

By Ingemar Pongratz

Portugal 2022 by Ingemar Pongratz

Portugal 2022 by Ingemar Pongratz

According to a recent Science|Business report, the European Commission and academic organizations have agreed on a new protocol to assess researchers. This new protocol to assess researchers is based on principles that will be more extensive that the approach used today.

Today, the primary metric to evaluate researchers in based on publication metric. Researchers should publish a lot in scientific journals and preferably in journals with high Impact Factor. Researcher and research organisation focus on metrics such as Impact factor, H Index, Influence Score and less on metrics that quantify quality, collaboration, etc

Thus, these equally important achievements are often not taken into consideration.

Activities such a communication of research to the public, training of students and post-docs, compliance to ethical principles and research quality are not taken well into consideration.

 

In fact, researchers are often assessed based on the metric used to assess research organizations. This can often create problems for individual researchers. Researchers who excel in areas such as collaboration, communication with lay audiences, innovation are often at disadvantage.

However, a new protocol to assess researchers will visualize their contribution and support their career development. In addition, A new protocol to assess researchers may provide considerable societal benefits in areas such as innovation. Today, research findings are seldom exploited, especially in Europe. Lots of valuable opportunities are thus not commercially exploited which reduces EU competitiveness. Research is a societal investment, and society has the right to expect benefits from their investment. A new protocol to assess researchers that highlights the contribution towards innovation and societal value creation is thus critical for society as well.

 

Here, the European Commission can make an important contribution. When proposal for EU funding such as Horizon Europe proposal, the European Commission could apply a standardized template for the project participants where their contribution in training, communication and innovation is highlighted. This should then be formally applied in the evaluation process along with the other metrics that are currently utilized.

This could create an incentive for project proposal to include a wide array of experience, something that is not obvious in Horizon Europe proposals.

Hopefully, the current initiative will be further pursued across Europe and even beyond.

 

Ingemar Pongratz is cofounder of Fenix Scientific AB / Pongratz Consulting. Through Pongratz Consulting, we help universities, enterprises and other organizations to apply for public funding specially from European sources. In addition, Ingemar Pongratz is founder of Letavis AB. Letavis AB is a company that develops new products for the agricultural sectors. We have developed and tested in industrial conditions a product that increase agricultural yields of crops. We are also finalizing an industrial pilot of a second product that improves gastrointestinal health and increases feed efficiency for the swine sector. Please use the online contact form if you are interested to know more about or proposal writing service or if you would like to know more about Letavis AB.