New composition of the CoARA Steering Board

The Coalition for the Advancement of Research Assessment (CoARA) has published the results of the election of new members to the Steering Board, the collegiate body responsible for defining the strategy, work plan and oversight of CoARA's progress and sustainability. This body is composed of a maximum of 11 members, including a chair and two vice-chairs.

In December 2025, CoARA successfully concluded a new election process and adopted key governance decisions. Within this framework, three members of the Steering Board were elected, including a vice-chair, and an update to the rules of procedure was validated, which will come into force in 2026. The vote, which was open between 25 November and 10 December, saw a total of 396 votes cast, representing a participation rate of 51%.

As a result, Janne Pölönen (Finnish Federation of Scientific Societies) was re-elected after completing his two-year term and will assume the position of vice-chair, while Oliver Günther (University of Potsdam) and Kalpana Chaudhari (Institute for Sustainable Development and Research Reforms) join as new members of the Steering Board. These appointments replace outgoing Vice-Chair Elizabeth Gadd and Luciana Balboa, whom CoARA expressly thanked for their commitment, dedication and leadership during their time on the governing body.

In accordance with its design, the entire electoral process was carried out using balancing mechanisms to ensure a diverse and representative composition of the Steering Board, taking into account the variety of participating organisations, geographical coverage, gender equality and diversity of disciplines and areas of expertise.

The composition of the CoARA Steering Board includes members from different countries (a minimum of two representatives from each geographical region) and various types of organisations or their corresponding associations: (1) universities, (2) research centres and research infrastructures, (3) academies and academic societies, (4) public and private research funding agencies, (5) national, regional or research evaluation agencies, and (6) other non-profit organisations involved in research evaluation.

These three elected members join the rest of the board of directors, on which ANECA has been represented for the past year by Irene Ramos Vielba, an advisory member of this agency. Her election in December 2024 as the Spanish representative and representative of the evaluation agencies reinforces the recognition of ANECA's leadership in the reform of research evaluation at the national and international levels.

During this year, ANECA has led important projects, such as the mapping of best practices, a collective report by the Spanish National Chapter that identifies emerging institutional practices for more qualitative, responsible and inclusive research evaluation, in line with CoARA principles. In addition, ANECA has received funding in the second call for CoARA Boost-Cascade Funding to develop Pilot Experiments for Innovative Academic Assessment under ANECA's CoARA Action Plan PEI3AC. Through the PEI3AC project, ANECA is developing structured pilot experiments to test new assessment methodologies, including the use of narrative CVs, qualitative assessment models as an alternative to traditional metric indicators, and strategies to mitigate unconscious bias in assessment processes. These tests will be carried out with the participation of international assessors and experts.