TREASURE seeks to reward UC students for implementing reproducible, reusable and open research practices
Funded with €30,000, the pilot project aims to implement changes in research assessment practices at the University of Coimbra that promote open science and contribute to new evaluation indicators and tools.
The University of Coimbra (UC) was one of the 25 projects funded in the first round of CoARA Boost. The TREASURE project, which recently started, is an institutional pilot project that aims to create formal incentives, by developing procedures transversal to the different UC courses, to formally recognize UC master's and doctoral candidates who choose to implement reproducible, reusable and open research practices in their research theses, while respecting epistemic diversity and the unique characteristics of individual studies. The project’s multidisciplinary local advisory council will define the research practices to assess, and the assessment criteria and procedures – adaptable to different courses and research fields - to award the additional optional certification. The local council, which first met February 26th and 28th, includes master's and doctoral coordinators, supervisors and students from the different UC Faculties.
The project TREASURE, Transforming Research Assessment through Responsible Research training of Early Stage Researchers: A pilot study, was funded under the international initiative Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) in the first round of the CoARA Boost cascade funding program, as an Institutional Pilot Project. CoARA Boost supports European institutions in implementing the 10 commitments of the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment (ARRA), in order to introduce changes in research assessment practices. TREASURE focuses primarily on the agreement’s first commitment: recognizing diverse research products and activities. Institutional Pilot Projects allow organizations to test new evaluation models and approaches in specific areas, promoting experimentation with new evaluation indicators and tools.
TREASURE is based at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research (IIIUC), and it is coordinated by the Vice-Rector for Research, João Ramalho-Santos, with scientific contribution of researcher Tracey Weissgerber (ERA Chair EXCELScIOR). Its team includes members from different organizational and research & development units at the UC. The project has a long-term scope, having secured funding of €30000 for its first year. It started in January with the Local and External Advisory Boards’ constitution.
More information can be found on the project's website, https://www.uc.pt/iii/treasure/