Each quarter, DORA holds a Community of Practice (CoP) meeting for National and International Initiatives working to address responsible research assessment reform. This CoP is a space for initiatives to learn from each other, make connections with like-minded organizations, and collaborate on projects or topics of common interest. Meeting agendas are shaped by participants. If you lead an initiative, coalition, or organization working to improve research assessment and are interested in joining the group, please find more information here.
During the first meeting of the DORA National & International Initiatives CoP Discussion Group in 2025, we welcomed the Recognition and Rewards (R&R) program in the Netherlands. Bianca Langhout, Program Manager for Recognition & Rewards at Erasmus University Rotterdam and representative of Dutch Universities in the National R&R program, presented an overview of this national initiative, which seeks to modernize the way academic staff are recognized, appreciated and rewarded across Dutch knowledge institutions. She was accompanied by Stefan Penders from Universities of the Netherlands (UNL) who joins the Initiatives group on behalf of the program. He will take over this position from Kim Huijpen, who is moving to another exciting role in the Netherlands.
Inspired by international movements, including DORA, the Leiden Manifesto and the Metric Tide, the Dutch R&R program was launched in 2019, and is structured around five key goals:
- Diversifying and vitalizing career paths.
- Balancing individual and collective efforts.
- Focusing on quality over quantity.
- Promoting open science.
- Stimulating academic leadership.
The program involves 18 committees from universities, university medical centers, research institutes, and funders, all dedicated to stimulating culture change at the institutional level. A central tenet of the program is the diversity of approaches, emphasizing inspiration, experimentation, co-creation, sharing good practices, and mutual learning. These activities are supported through a central framework and coordinating team on the national level, regular online and offline meetings, a recurrent Recognition & Rewards Festival, and the development of an online community platform, RRView.
R&R video from Tilburg University
Langhout also detailed Erasmus University Rotterdam’s (EUR) implementation of the R&R program, highlighting its alignment with the university’s broader goal of becoming an impact-driven institution. This implementation includes the development of diverse career paths, with a decentralized approach that allows for flexibility across different schools. A significant shift towards narrative approaches in the EUR yearly development cycle and promotion procedures was also discussed, emphasizing a broader range of activities, skills, and competencies, and a shift in focus on development. To support this, guidelines have been developed for writing and assessing narratives that can be used by academics. Furthermore, Langhout shared how they are experimenting with workshops to encourage discussions on teamwork, alongside a redefinition of leadership within the university. The R&R team has contributed to the development of a new leadership profile and the redesign of leadership training programs.
“Since this is a system and culture change, it takes a lot of time. Often, we need to zoom out to see the changes. If you look at six months, maybe not a lot has changed, but five years in, you can really see changes.” – Dr Bianca Langhout, Dutch Recognition & Rewards program
Langhout discussed the challenges and importance of a systemic, integrated and cultural change approach, as the transition from policy to behavior change can be slow and requires commitment. Langhout also emphasized the importance of building relationships and tailoring approaches to fit with stakeholders, continuous conversation and experimentation in fostering change.
We also heard updates from other organizations, which are briefly summarized below:
- Canada’s Tri-Agency Narrative CV: A new narrative-style CV is being developed, which accommodates different languages and focuses on the 10 most significant contributions.
- GRC RRA Survey and Open Access Long Form Publication: the GRC updated on their funder’s survey: quantitative data has been reviewed, now they are on to conducting a qualitative analysis of the data received and the results will be shared in May. A collaborative project involving a dozen universities is also underway to consolidate perspectives on long-form publications.
- INORMS Research Evaluation Group: The INORMS Research Evaluation group has established four new subgroups to focus their work:
- Embedding More Than Our Rank.
- Tools to deliver on SCOPE.
- SCOPE4Impact.
- Research Information Management Data.
- CoARA
- ARRA now at 816 signatories, 716 members joined CoARA
- Second launch of cascade funding in February
- Working Groups starting to produce outputs
- Developing an endorsement framework
- Exploring closer working with DORA to harness shared momentum & vision
- Fundraising survey now live
- National Chapter Event in Germany in March 2025.
We look forward to our next meeting in May 2025. In the meantime, here’s our suggested reading list following this Q1 meeting:
- Dutch Recognition & Rewards Culture Barometer: https://recognitionrewardsmagazine.nl/cultuurbarometer/en/
- EUR Journey of Progress tool:
- Canada’s Tri-agency CV: https://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/53575.html
- CoARA Cascade Funding: https://coara.eu/coara-boost-cascade-funding/faq-cascade-funding/