Our Association is Officially Admitted to CoARA!
The Association for Scientific Research and Applications (BAUDER) has been officially admitted as a member of the CoARA – Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment, as part of a global initiative that places quality and impact at the center of research assessment processes.
Following the evaluation by the CoARA Steering Board, our membership application has been approved, and our association has taken its place on the global list of member organizations on the CoARA website as an official signatory of the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment (ARRA).
CoARA is an international platform aiming to improve the current systems used in the assessment of scientific research, researchers, and research organizations. Going beyond purely quantitative metrics such as the journal impact factor or h-index that have dominated the academic world for many years, it represents a global paradigm shift focusing on the quality, societal impact, and qualitative assessment (peer-review) of research.
Beyond an ordinary civil society movement, CoARA is a highly supported strategic formation. The draft of the agreement was prepared under the leadership of the continent’s largest science and policy-making bodies, such as the European Commission, Science Europe, and the European University Association (EUA).
As one of the most important elements shaping the future vision of the European Research Area (ERA), CoARA works directly integrated with the science policies of the European Union. Today, hundreds of prestigious universities, funding agencies, and research institutes worldwide are part of this coalition.
Our participation in this massive international network supported by the European Commission will elevate our association’s vision and contributions to the scientific ecosystem to the next level. The key benefits of our membership are:
- In the academic publishing processes we conduct within our association (for example, in our journal Aintelia Science Notes) and the scientific events we organize, we will have the opportunity to implement the most up-to-date, fair, and transparent assessment criteria at European Union standards.
- By sitting at the same table with leading universities, research centers, and funding organizations from around the world, we will develop direct and strong international collaborations through CoARA Working Groups.
- Rather than just following and applying rules from the outside, we will have an active voice in global and European-centered discussions that shape the future of research assessment.
- Instead of traditional systems that solely focus on publication numbers, we will be one of the strong representatives in Turkey of a visionary structure that rewards the societal impact, innovation, open science practices, and diversity of research.
As a CoARA member, our association will take an active role in fulfilling the core commitments of the coalition. In this context:
- Within the next year, we will prepare an Action Plan detailing how our institution will contribute to this reform process and share it with the scientific community worldwide on the open-access Zenodo platform.
- We will work in close contact with CoARA National Chapters to conduct more localized discussions on national and international platforms.
In our journey to transform the research ecosystem into a more innovative, transparent, and inclusive structure, we invite all our members and stakeholders to support this process.
To stay informed about the latest developments regarding CoARA, you can follow our social media accounts or check the #ReformingRA hashtag.