CoARA at Mid Sweden University

CoARA is an international initiative to develop the assessment of research and research qualifications. Mid Sweden University participates in CoARA to further develop working methods in merit assessment and strengthen our collaboration with other universities and research funders.

Overall objective

The aim is to set a common direction for changes in the assessment practices of research, researchers and research organisations, in order to maximise the quality and impact of research.

The idea is that a broader palette of contributions to the development of research will be assessed, where the starting point is primarily to make qualitative evaluations via peer review. Quantitative measures such as the number of publications and citations continue to play a role, but more as a complement to a qualitative evaluation.

For implementation, new criteria, tools and processes need to be developed. This takes place both internationally, but also in Sweden within the national "CoARA chapter". It has been active for a couple of years and, in addition to a steering group, includes five working groups that deal with how CoARA's objectives should be implemented with regard to:

Assessment of research applications
Assessment of individual researchers
The use of bibliometrics
Open science
Collaboration merits

CoARA at Mid Sweden University

Since 2025, Mid Sweden University has been working with the task of following the national process and providing perspectives from our own activities.

The group consists of:

Bengt Gunnar Jonsson, NDH academic coordinator at Miun, participates in working group 2
Mikael Berglund, ULS Quality Officer incl for CoARA
Håkan Wiklund, KKI Vice President for Quality Work
Sebastian Baum, FUS & Grants Office, participates in Working Group 1
Anneli Friberg, Library Director, participates in working group 4
Lars Våge, Librarian, Bibliometrics
Maria Evans, HUV Head of Research Administration
Fanny Burman, NMT Faculty Officer for Research

CoARA Action Plan

Upcoming open meetings

Swedish research funders & CoARA principles

Welcome to this webinar were we will have pleasure to hear Swedish funding agencies sharing how they work with CoARA principles. What is “breddad meritering”, responsible research assessment, and what does that mean for the researcher? What matters when? The first part of the webinar will include presentations from the financiers, after which we will have Q&A session moderated by Coco Norén, Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Uppsala University.

When: 6 February 2026, 10.00-11.30

Where: Zoom

Focus group: Early career researchers in Sweden

Communication channels: UU Junior faculty, Sveriges unga akademi, other CoARA WGs, Swarma network for research advisors, SLU Future Faculty network

Speakers:

Lucas Du Priest (Research Officer working with call for Career Grants for Early-career Researchers at Formas),
Teresa Ottinger (Head of unit at Swedish Research Council)
Yvonne Fors (Head of unit Grants Office Mälardalen Universit, former project manager at The Knowledge Foundation)
Anna Bergstrand (Strategic Area Leader Emerging Technologies and Businesses at Vinnova)