The global research landscape is in significant transition, moving away from narrow reliance on journal impact factors, citation counts, and publication volume toward more qualitative, responsible, and context-sensitive evaluation. An early catalyst was the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), published in 2013, which aims to improve how the output of scientific research is evaluated by funding agencies, academic institutions, and other parties. Momentum has since spread across regions and policy levels, with funders’ councils, intergovernmental bodies, and regional fora each adopting their own frameworks for responsible assessment.
In Europe, reform is embedded directly in the policy agenda. Research assessment reform is a dedicated structural policy of the European Research Area (ERA) Policy Agenda (2025–2027). The Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment gave rise to the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA), now with over 900 signatory organisations. Yet translating these high-level commitments into institutional change remains a formidable challenge, with deeply embedded incentive structures, uneven awareness, and divergent expectations across sectors, career stages, and national systems.
Within this context, the Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA) occupies a distinctive position. As a community of current and former Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) fellows spanning all disciplines, career stages, and geographies, MCAA members experience research assessment both as subjects of evaluation and, increasingly, as participants in evaluation processes themselves. Their perspectives offer a grounded, practitioner-level view of how assessment systems are working and where reforms are, or are not, being implemented.
As preparations for the ERA Act bring researcher assessment and career frameworks into legislative focus, the survey provides the empirical basis for an MCAA position that speaks for a community directly affected by how these reforms are designed and implemented.
This report presents the findings of the MCAA’s 2025 survey on research assessment, conducted to gather systematic evidence on perceptions of researcher assessments by the MSCA community.
