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This post summarizes the June 2026 DORA Funder Groups Strategic Planning Workshops, which gathered global input to shape DORA’s upcoming 2027–2030 Strategic Plan. It outlines the funding community's 15-year vision for Responsible Research Assessment (RRA), emphasizing a shift toward values-based evaluation, qualitative indicators like narrative CVs, and improved system efficiency. On June 18, 2026, the...

On June 16, 2026, the DORA Initiatives Community of Practice hosted a strategic planning workshop where members collaborated to envision the next 15 years of responsible research assessment (RRA). Participants addressed pressing challenges like "reform fatigue" and outlined system-level, institutional, and infrastructure-building strategies needed to transition toward trust-based evaluation models. The collaborative insights gathered during...

Each quarter, DORA holds two Community of Practice meetings for research funding organizations. One meeting takes place for organizations in the Asia-Pacific (A-P) region and the other is for organizations in Africa, the Americas, and Europe (AAE). These groups provide a space for funders to learn from each other, share new policies and practices, and...

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...

Each quarter, DORA holds two Community of Practice meetings for research funding organizations. One meeting takes place for organizations in the Asia-Pacific (A-P) region and the other is for organizations in Africa, the Americas, and Europe (AAE). These groups provide a space for funders to learn from each other, share new policies and practices, and...

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...

Each quarter, DORA holds two Community of Practice meetings for research funding organizations. One meeting takes place for organizations in the Asia-Pacific (A-P) region and the other is for organizations in Africa, the Americas, and Europe (AAE). These groups provide a space for funders to learn from each other, share new policies and practices, and...

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...

Each quarter, DORA holds two Community of Practice (CoP) meetings for research funding organizations. One meeting takes place for organizations in the Asia-Pacific time zone and the other meeting is targeted to organizations in Africa, the Americas, and Europe. The CoP is a space for funders to learn from each other, make connections with like-minded organizations,...

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...

Each quarter, DORA holds two Community of Practice (CoP) meetings for research funding organizations. One meeting takes place for organizations in the Asia-Pacific time zone and the other meeting is targeted to organizations in Africa, the Americas, and Europe. The CoP is a space for funders to learn from each other, make connections with like-minded organizations,...

Each quarter, DORA holds two Community of Practice (CoP) meetings for research funding organizations. One meeting takes place for organizations in the Asia-Pacific time zone and the other meeting is targeted to organizations in Africa, the Americas, and Europe. The CoP is a space for funders to learn from each other, make connections with like-minded organizations,...

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...

19 representatives from 7 research funder organisations participated in the last quarterly Asia-Pacific Funder Discussion Group hosted by DORA. New DORA staff members, Liz Allen and Janet Catterall were introduced to the group. The position of DORA Program Manager is currently vacant. DORA updates to the group included the upcoming implementation guide and guidance document,...

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...

Each quarter, DORA holds two Community of Practice (CoP) meetings for research funding organizations. One meeting takes place for organizations in the Asia-Pacific time zone and the other meeting is targeted to organizations in Africa, the Americas, and Europe. If you are employed by a public or private research funder and interested in joining the...

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...

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...

Each quarter, DORA holds two Community of Practice (CoP) meetings for research funding organizations. One meeting takes place for organizations in the Asia-Pacific time zone and the other meeting is targeted to organizations in Africa, the Americas, and Europe. If you are employed by a public or private research funder and interested in joining the...

Narrative CVs have become a potential avenue to recognize the broad range of a researcher’s scholarly contributions. They can be used as a tool to move toward a “quality over quantity” mindset in career evaluation, help reduce the emphasis on journal-based indicators, and better accommodate non-linear research career paths. To examine the merits and drawbacks...

Funding organizations signal what is valued within research ecosystems by defining the criteria upon which proposals and applicants are assessed. In doing so, they help to shape the culture of research through the projects and people they support. Focusing on a limited set of quantitative criteria favors a narrow view of research and disincentivizes creativity...

Bias influences the decisions that impact academic careers, from peer review and publication to hiring and promotion. With these ongoing and systemic issues in mind, DORA’s June and July funder discussions focused on navigating system biases in decision-making. Ruth Schmidt, Associate Professor at the Institute of Design of the Illinois Institute of Technology, gave a presentation...

 “When quantitative measures have an outsized impact on how people are rewarded, it can increase the temptation to focus on a narrow set of activities and reduce investment in other meaningful, but less rewarded, achievements.” Using traditional bibliometric standards of “quality” to inform research assessment can have a deleterious effect on how and what types...

Narrative CV formats have been implemented by multiple research funding organizations, such as the Dutch National Research Council, the Swiss National Science Foundation, Luxembourg Research Council, and UKRI, in an effort to de-emphasize flawed quantitative indicators of research quality while capturing qualitative aspects of research contributions. Though multiple organizations are currently experimenting with narrative CVs,...

Research culture is influenced by the ways in which research and researchers are assessed. For example, funding criteria such as journal prestige can cause researchers to focus their efforts on publishing in a small subset of scientific journals. Though this increases competition, it can inadvertently lead assessors to overlook other types of research outputs, contributions,...