University of Calgary

UCalgary has been focused on institutional reform and the integration of DORA-informed principles across two key areas: changing academic policies and centering DORA within our institutional strategies. Both areas demonstrate UCalgary’s commitments to DORA and RRA at the highest institutional levels, and offer administrative means of building awareness and consensus. 

Academic policies

The cornerstone change was to the General Faculties Council Academic Staff Criteria and Processes Handbook (GFC Handbook), which outlines criteria for renewal, transfer, tenure, promotion, academic performance assessment, and academic appointment selection procedures for all 14 Faculties. The Faculties are then responsible for creating Faculty Guidelines. While Faculty Guidelines may refine and interpret the criteria in the GFC Handbook, they may not create new criteria, or add to, contradict, or delete criteria.

In June 2021, a new paragraph was added to the GFC Handbook “Criteria for Research and Scholarship, Teaching and Service” stating that “in keeping with the commitment of the University of Calgary to the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), research and scholarship activities shall be evaluated based on the quality of the research and scholarship, relying on robust tools and approaches to assessing research quality and impact, rather than on bibliometrics alone. This includes considering the merit of all research and scholarship outputs as well as a broad range of qualitative impact indicators such as influence on policy and practice.” 

In 2023, further refinements were made to:

1. Require all Faculties to include a statement in their Faculty Guidelines of the ways in which the Faculty applies the DORA principles in assessing research and scholarship activities.
2. Replace instances of “top-tier” and “highly-ranked” journal, in favour of language about “High-quality research and scholarship” with expectations for scholarly outputs across disciplines.
3. Academic job postings to include a “meaningful institutional Hiring Statement that: - expresses commitment to EDIA, - encompasses recognition of Indigenous engagement, truth and reconciliation, and - includes reference to the principles of DORA.”
4. Include options for narrative statements in academic job applications: “Depending upon the required background, skills, and experience, a narrative statement or Most Significant Contributions may also be solicited.” 
5. At least once every two years, all members of Academic Selection Committees shall be required to participate in training around EDIA and Indigenous engagement as well as DORA and its principles.

To remain aligned with the GFC Handbook changes, Faculty Guidelines have integrated DORA in a number of ways. Complementing the GFC Handbook, alongside the Faculty Guidelines, is the Academic Selection Toolkit which serves as a resource for Academic Selection Committees and administrators. It introduces best practices in recruitment and selection, promotes equitable and inclusive hiring practices, legislative requirements, and University policies. The Academic Selection Toolkit was updated in 2024 to include new DORA content – including links to several DORA resources and tools, embedding RRA guidance, recommendations to include narrative CVs, and other relevant content.

Institutional strategies and culture

Research impact is central in our institutional strategic plans. The Ahead of Tomorrow strategic plan 2023-2030 centres impact and community connections. The accompanying Research and Innovation Implementation Plan 2024-2027 explicitly embeds RRA principles and DORA into considerations of research impact and assessment, particularly into Domain #4: Leading Research Impact. 

DORA is being implemented and integrated alongside a number of other key initiatives, such as the Indigenous strategy, ii’ taa’poh’to’p, as well as commitments to equity, diversity and inclusion, sustainability, transdisciplinary scholarship, and community mental health and well-being.

UCalgary’s institutional commitment to DORA is embedded at all levels of the organization, including leadership from the Provost and Vice-President (Research). It is grounded in an emphasis on impact as a key component of scholarship and research. As Dr. William Ghali, vice-president (research) notes, “pursuing research and scholarship impact assessment is intended to not only support our scholars in their careers, but also to establish a clear process through which we can demonstrate the benefits and positive impacts our research has in our communities.” 

Pursuing changes to the way the University assesses research will also help to align policies and practices with those of leading Canadian funders, many of whom have also signed DORA (CIHR, NSERC, SSHRC, CFI, etc.).

Resourcing staff to lead change 

Signing DORA required the University to review institutional practices of research assessment, asking not just how we evaluate research now, but how we might deepen our definitions of research excellence and impact in the future. Decision-making authority on academic policies falls within the Provost portfolio and with the Faculties, and these teams have been directly responsible for all academic policy changes. 

In addition to policies and strategies, awareness building, implementation support, and socializing change are critical to build an institution-wide commitment and uptake of reform. The Vice-President (Research) provided resources, including two Associate Vice-Presidents (Research), and dedicated staff in the Knowledge to Impact (KI) unit, to support these functions and liaise with leadership, faculties, units, individuals, and external parties. The KI team provided feedback and suggestions on RRA practices to the GFC Handbook Working Group, provided feedback on draft Faculty Guidelines via the Provost’s Office, and created tools and resources to support the change. 

An advisory Research Impact Assessment Working Group was created in December 2021 by the Vice-President (Research), and was composed of Associate Vice-Presidents Research, Associate Deans Research, faculty members, analysts, research facilitators, and others with an interest in research impact assessment. The Working Group met from December 2021 to January 2023, reviewing current assessment practices and policy documents, providing recommendations for Faculty-level implementation, and highlighting areas of strength and further development. Expert guidance to this group was provided by Dr. Kathryn Graham, co-founder of the International School on Research Impact Assessment. 

Engagement and communications

The KI team is available for consultations with individual scholars and units, and works internally with Research Services staff to provide up-to-date interpretations of evolving DORA-related criteria in funding opportunities. Capacity-building activities, such as Faculty visits, presentations to committees, and campus-wide webinars, have built awareness of DORA and initiated conversations that drive incremental change. Feedback from these interventions is also used to increase understanding of the barriers and facilitators to change. From December 2021 to March 2025, the team facilitated 29 internal presentations and workshops with over 700 attendees, many of which were co-facilitated with units such as Departments, Faculties, and Libraries and Cultural Resources. 

UCalgary scholars are equipped with knowledge and news through the University of Calgary DORA website, to support them in their transition. The website was created in 2022 and was substantively updated in Fall 2024. It includes information on DORA related updates and changes happening internally and at major funding agencies, evolving best practices in the international community, resources on responsible and inclusive research assessment practices, and addresses barriers to DORA implementation through FAQs. News articles are also published semi-regularly (2021, 2023, 2024).

External engagement and open sharing 

The RRA movement is growing in Canada. Major Canadian funders CIHR, NSERC, SSHRC, CFI and Genome Canada signed DORA in 2019. As such, engaging beyond the University enabled us to build relationships with DORA champions and leaders at other Canadian and international universities, and at Canadian funding organizations. This resulted in joint presentations at research administration conferences in 2023 and 2024, and national webinars in 2023 and 2025, where updates on the DORA movement and upcoming changes to funding programs were discussed with the research community. By engaging openly and broadly, we were able to bring evolving practices back to the University of Calgary in real-time, and proactively create resources and tools. We intend to remain collaborative and open to engagement as we learn and share more about institutional reform and RRA.

Beginning in 2020, consultations with executive committees were led by the Provost and the VPR. In January 2021, UCalgary signed DORA and made an announcement to the University community. By June 2021, the GFC Academic Staff Criteria and Processes Handbook was updated to include DORA. Later that same year, two FTE positions were added to an existing team in the Research Services Office to lead implementation, and a Research Impact Assessment Working Group was initiated. Throughout 2022 and 2023, the KI team conducted extensive engagement and policy review and feedback across campus. In 2023, the second round of DORA-related updates were added to the GFC Handbook, and the new Ahead of Tomorrow institutional strategic plan was released. In 2024, the Research and Innovation Implementation Plan 2024-2027 was released, an updated Academic Selection Toolkit was produced, and all Faculty Guidelines were updated.

A University of Calgary research impact framework, menu of indicators, and guide for creating impact narratives is under development. The goal of this project is to enhance understanding of research impact and assist faculty, postdoctoral scholars, students, staff, units and institutes to better demonstrate their impact. Faculties continue to facilitate deeper, discipline-specific discussions and working groups about RRA, and internal awards and policies continue to evolve.