Evaluation criteria approved for the next 2025 call for six-year research periods

At its meeting on December 9, the Plenary Session of the National Commission for the Evaluation of Research Activity (CNEAI) approved the criteria for the evaluation of research activity, which will be published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) by Resolution of the President of the CNEAI and Director of ANECA.

So that the entire university and research community can learn about the evaluation criteria without having to wait for their official publication, we are making public the text of Resolution 2025 sent to the BOE, thus facilitating the preparation of applications well in advance.

This Resolution follows on from those published in 2023 and 2024—after public consultation on an initial draft—when the principles and criteria for evaluating six-year research periods were updated with the fundamental aim of bringing them into line with the Organic Law on the University System (LOSU) and to bring this research activity evaluation program into line with the provisions of Royal Decree 678/2023, which regulates state accreditation for access to university teaching bodies (Article 21.6). 

Therefore, the following measures are maintained: the expansion of the type of contributions that applicants can submit for evaluation, so that a greater diversity of profiles and research careers are recognized; progress toward a more qualitative evaluation supported by the responsible use of quantitative indicators, which in the case of articles cannot be reduced to the impact factor of journals; the recognition of multidisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity, with the creation of a specific evaluation field; and measures to continue advancing towards effective equality, by including the possibility of submitting four contributions when situations of maternity or paternity leave, leave of absence for the care of children, for the care of relatives, etc. are adequately justified.

To facilitate the work of applicants and evaluators and to make the evaluation process more transparent, ANECA's management also publishes the application scale for this call. This scale specifies the principles of the 2025 Evaluation Criteria Resolution and will be the only one that the fifteen Advisory Committees can apply, in accordance with the evaluation framework established by CNEAI.