Institution Profile: Universitat Oberta de Catalunya

• In Spain, decisions on promotion and recruitment of professorial candidates are subject to the accreditations carried out by the government agencies, to which each professor must be submitted. Then, for each promotion or recruitment position, the university convenes a panel composed by internal and external professors, where several candidates can apply.
• While criteria followed to give accreditation is beyond the control of a single university or faculty, as a signatory of DORA, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya committed to an action plan to reform its internal processes.
• A working group for responsible metrics was set up in 2018, and an Open, Transparent and Merit-Based Recruitment of Researchers (OTM-R) strategy was devised that stresses supporting qualitative as well as quantitative research assessment.
• While the accreditation of individuals is beyond the control of the University, it has committed to look into how its professorial recruitment, promotion and retention procedures can align with principles of DORA as best as possible.