Press Release: CoARA Calls for Societal Impact to Become a Core Criterion in Research Assessment in its Recent Publication

PRESS RELEASE

CoARA calls for societal impact to become a core criterion in research assessment in its recent publication

The Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) has released a white paper advocating for research funders, universities, and policymakers to make societal impact a core criterion in how research is assessed and funded, alongside academic excellence. Offering a pluralistic understanding of what societal impact is, the paper ‘Transformative Research Assessment: Integrating Societal Impacts into Evaluation Frameworks’ outlines how research systems could generate, assess, and integrate societal impacts in practice.

Through a collaborative effort and grounded in practice, more than 60 experts from over 30 European institutions within the CoARA Working Group Towards Transformation subgroup on ‘Societal Impact’ have distilled real‑world practice into concrete, role‑specific guidance and a shared framework based on six guiding principles that different research systems can implement.

Produced by the CoARA Working Group Towards Transformation ‘Societal Impact’ subgroup, the white paper is the first publication to be formally endorsed by the CoARA community and is the first output featured in the CoARA Collection resource library that aims to offer the research community with practical tools for reform. The ‘Societal Impact’ subgroup is co-chaired by Professor Raimund Bleischwitz, Scientific Director for the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), and Professor Teresa Sordé Martí from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Providing funding support, the Leibniz Association Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) serves as the lead institution for CoARA’s ‘Societal Impact’ subgroup, which also includes co-author Estradivari from ZMT.

A response to global challenges

Research is under pressure to respond to intertwined crises, such as climate change, social inequality, and pandemics; yet prevailing evaluation practices remain dominated by publication counts and citation metrics that cannot capture research’s full societal value. The authors argue that societal change is a sometimes slow and cumulative process co-produced with many partners and assessment systems and should therefore recognise credible contributions to real-world improvements, while keeping reporting requirements proportionate.

Key points of the white paper ‘Transformative Research Assessment: Integrating Societal Impacts into Evaluation Frameworks’

• Impact-oriented research culture: The white paper advocates for a shift from compliance-driven, publication-based metrics to an impact-oriented research culture that aligns assessment and funding with societal needs. It highlights three priorities: embedding societal impact into funding logic, utilising mixed methods to assess credible contributions to change, and fostering institutional environments that reward engagement and view impact as integral to excellence.
• Six guiding principles for reform: The authors propose six guiding principles for a transformation of research assessment: prioritising societal relevance, embracing pluralism, planning for impact from the outset, co‑creating with stakeholders, evaluating both benefits and risks, and balancing accountability with learning through proportionate, auditable evidence.
• Practical steps for implementation: In order to translate principles into practice the authors recommend concrete actions for funders, institutions, researchers, businesses, and civil society partners. These include training evaluators, aligning incentives so that societal impact counts in recruitment, promotion, and funding, establishing brokerage roles, funding pilots with interim indicators, and applying simple tools such as impact-planning templates and outcome notes. The white paper emphasises that academic excellence and societal impact are synergistic and not competing goals.

“The EU’s research and innovation agenda, including the Horizon Europe programme and related reform efforts, is already experimenting with mission‑oriented and pathway approaches,” says first author, Prof. Raimund Bleischwitz from ZMT. “CoARA’s guidance translates practical lessons from European experience into governance options and concrete steps that EU institutions, national funders, and universities can adopt to embed societal impact into evaluation and accelerate alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals and EU missions.”

Prof. Teresa Sordé Martí from the Autonomous University of Barcelona adds, “Europe is already moving, but we need shared principles to scale these approaches fairly and effectively. This white paper equips decision‑makers with the language and tools to align reforms across national and institutional boundaries.”

The Program Manager for the CoARA, Dr. Matthias Girod, highlights,  “CoARA’s vision is to recognise the full diversity of research outputs, practices, and activities that contribute to quality and impact. This white paper translates that vision into practice. As CoARA’s first community-endorsed output, it offers funders and institutions concrete ways to embed societal impact in evaluation without undermining academic freedom or overburdening researchers.”

 

Publication:

Bleischwitz, R., Martí, T. S., Ciarli, T., Ferré, M., Estradivari, Matt, M., Binot, A., Soler-Gallart, M., & Chavarro, D. (2025). Transformative Research Assessment: Integrating Societal Impacts into Evaluation Frameworks. CoARA.
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17722382
Link: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17722382

 

NOTE TO EDITORS:

About the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA):

The Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) is an international alliance committed to reforming research assessment so that it recognises the diverse contributions that advance knowledge and benefit society. The Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) serves as the lead institution for CoARA’s ‘Societal Impact’ subgroup, co-chaired by ZMT’s scientific director Raimund Bleischwitz and Teresa Sordé Martí from the Autonomous University of Barcelona with funding support from the Leibniz Association.

CoARA invites EU funders, national research agencies, universities, civil society, and business partners to adopt the six principles, pilot the paper’s templates in upcoming calls, fund evaluator training and broker roles, and join CoARA communities of practice to share lessons and cases.

 

Contact communication@coara.org for more details.