ANECA will lead a European project to test new methodologies for evaluating academic activity

The National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation (ANECA) has been selected to receive funding under the second call for proposals of the CoARA Boost - Cascade Funding program, with the project “Pilot Experiments for Innovative Academic Assessment under ANECA's CoARA Action Plan (PEI3AC)”.

The project, which was one of 28 selected from more than 130 applications evaluated following an assessment process coordinated by the CoARA Secretariat, will begin implementation in September 2025. This initiative is part of ANECA's 2024–2027 Action Plan for the reform of research assessment, developed in the context of its participation in the Coalition for the Advancement of Research Assessment (CoARA).

Through the PEI3AC project, ANECA will launch structured pilot experiments to test new evaluation methodologies, including the use of narrative CVs, qualitative evaluation models as an alternative to traditional metric indicators, and strategies to mitigate unconscious biases in evaluation processes.

These tests will be carried out with the participation of international evaluators and experts, and will aim to gather empirical evidence on the impact of these evaluation methodologies on decision-making. The results of the project are expected to contribute to the creation of validated frameworks to guide a systemic reform of research evaluation in Spain, while also serving as inspiration for similar processes in Europe.

The project reinforces ANECA's commitment to promoting responsible evaluation and will provide practical tools and recommendations for institutions, evaluators, and public policy makers. Likewise, its results will feed into the joint work of the Spanish National Chapter of CoARA, which ANECA has co-led since 2023 and which promotes inter-institutional collaboration to transform the evaluation system in a coordinated manner. It is also hoped that this will contribute to the international scientific debate and strengthen Spain's leadership in the transformation of academic evaluation models.

Further information on the selected proposals: here

More information on ANECA's activities within the framework of CoARA:  here