The call for evaluation of research sexennials 2025 is open

The call for applications from civil servants will be open from January 9 to January 30, 2026. This call is also addressed to those who acceded to the civil service career before January 1, 2026 and want to apply for the recognition of six-year periods obtained as labor personnel.

The labor staff of public or private universities may submit the applications accepted by their university from February 9 to March 2, 2026, as reported in this news item.

It is recalled that the Plenary of the National Commission for the Evaluation of Research Activity (CNEAI) approved in the session held on December 9, 2025 the criteria for the evaluation of research activity, of which news was already given to facilitate the preparation of applications well in advance. The criteria were published by Resolution of the President of the CNEAI and Director of ANECA in the BOE of December 19.

This Resolution of criteria gives continuity to those published in 2023 and 2024 -after the public consultation carried out on an initial draft-, when the principles and criteria for the evaluation of the six-year research periods were updated with the fundamental objective of adjusting them to the Organic Law of the University System (LOSU) and to give coherence to this program of evaluation of research activity with the provisions of Royal Decree 678/2023, which regulates the state accreditation for access to university teaching bodies (article 21.6).

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

In order to facilitate the work of the applicants and the evaluators and to give more transparency to the evaluation process, ANECA's management also publishes the scale to be applied in this call. This scale specifies the principles of the Resolution of evaluation criteria of 2025 and will be the only one that can be applied by the fifteen Advisory Committees, according to the evaluation framework established by CNEAI. ANECA has also published a document of frequently asked questions.

The Evaluation Committees have already been appointed, and they will be published on ANECA's web page and in the Official State Gazette once the process of signing the Code of Ethics by all the members has been completed. In this call, committees 3 (Cellular and Molecular Biology and Basic Biomedical Sciences) and 4 (Medicine and Health Specialties) will be restructured in order to balance the distribution of applications corresponding to Health Sciences.