On 10 December 2025, CoARA's General Assembly convened online to elect three new Steering Board members, including a new Vice Chair, alongside discussions on action plans, Working Group outputs, National Chapter progress, Cascade Funding highlights and the coalition's impact on research assessment reform globally with emphasis on university rankings.
New Steering Board composition
The General Assembly achieved 51% voter participation and reached quorum for all governance decisions. As a result, we are pleased to announce that the General Assembly has elected three new Steering Board members to join the coalition's governance structure:
- Janne Pölönen (Federation of Finnish Learned Societies, Finland) as Vice Chair
- Prof. Oliver Günther (University of Potsdam, Germany) as Steering Board member
- Dr. Kalpana Chaudhari (Institute for Sustainable Development, Research and Reforms, India) as Steering Board member
Please see the image above for a snapshot of the new Steering Board composition following the election.
The newly elected Vice Chair, Janne Pölönen, brings expertise from his time on the CoARA Steering Board over the past two years, as well as his contributions as Co-Chair of the Working Group on Multilingualism and Language Biases in Research Assessment and as the Secretary General of Publication Forum at the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies.
The CoARA Steering Board also welcomes new elected members, Prof. Oliver Günther (President of the University of Potsdam) and Dr. Kalpana Chaudhari (Institute for Sustainable Development, Research and Reforms), strengthening representation in the Steering Board from Germany and India, respectively.
To ensure diverse representation, balancing mechanisms were implemented during the election process, considering types of organisations represented, geographic coverage, gender, and diversity of disciplines and expertise. The General Assembly also voted to validate an update to the CoARA Steering Board Rules of Procedure to take effect in 2026. The updated rules harmonise the term lengths of Steering Board members with those of the Chair and Vice Chair positions to build institutional memory.
Thanking Outgoing Members
The incoming Steering Board members replace our outgoing Vice Chair Dr. Elizabeth Gadd and Steering Board member Dr. Luciana Balboa who completed their terms this year.
“It has been an incredible honour to serve this important community for the first three formative years of its life. The chance to work alongside such an incredibly committed and passionate coalition of volunteers and Secretariat team has been truly inspiring. Their drive to create a future in which researchers no longer have to choose what’s best for research rather than what’s best for their careers, has fuelled so many wonderful interventions and outcomes. After the recent CERRA Conference, a researcher contacted me to say that my comments, reflecting CoARA’s commitments, had given them real hope for the future. This is what CoARA is about, and I’m so proud to have been a small part of it.”
Dr. Elizabeth Gadd
Dr. Elizabeth Gadd has served on the CoARA Steering Board for the past three years and has been fundamental in shaping the coalition during its foundational stages, in addition to her contributions to the original drafting of the ARRA. We extend our deep appreciation to both Dr. Gadd and to Dr. Balboa for their dedication to the coalition and for their leadership during their time on the board.
“I’m humbled to continue serving on the CoARA Steering Board and honoured to take on the role of Vice Chair alongside Karen. At the same time, I want to express my deepest thanks to Lizzie as her term comes to an end—her leadership has made a lasting impact on the success CoARA. I also warmly congratulate Oliver Günther and Kalpana Chaudhari on joining the Board, and thank Luciana Balboa for her valued service. Systemic reform of research assessment requires coordinated action and a true tipping-point scale, and in just three years CoARA has built a strong community and collaborations across Europe and beyond. The coming years will be decisive in determining how effectively we turn the community’s will, effort and momentum into lasting transformation of assessment practices.”
CoARA Vice Chair, Janne Pölönen
We look forward to welcoming new Steering Board members in 2026 and to continue to drive the long term vision and shape the next steps for research assessment reform together!