Science Evaluation

The Focus Group Science Evaluation will share and consult concepts and mechanisms of the health research & innovation performance evaluation, institutional monitoring and quality assurance in research. The aim is to discuss the most effective evaluation system employing principles of excellence, external reviews, independence, competitiveness and internationality.

Main areas of interest and priorities of the Focus Group

1. Benchmarking: Indicators for benchmarking will be suggested and collected in order to compare scientific performance of Alliance4Life members and towards advanced institutions from EU 15.

2. The most effective system of institutional evaluation: The participating institutions will compare their internal evaluation process with the common standard defined by the Focus Group as “the most effective system of evaluation”. The Focus Group will work on the definition of the common standard process of evaluation to be based on good practice and the workable systems of the most prominent EU institutions operating in Life Sciences area. The members of the group will also identify the weak points of their systems of evaluation and propose the changes leading to the performance improvement.

3. Database of experts: The participating institutions will share a database of experts in different scientific fields. Experts will provide expertise in different processes: a/ evaluation (individual, institutional - national grant providers, European Commission), b/ mentoring of junior researchers (PhD, postdoc, potentially other staff), c/co-supervising of PhD candidates, etc.

4. Sharing the experience from national systems of evaluation: The national systems of evaluation often linked to the funding and budgeting of the institution may dramatically influence the strategic direction of an institution. The Focus Group will design the survey revealing the main features of the national evaluation systems and the debate among the members should lead to identifying the real impacts of these measures. 

5. Open Access and Publishing houses: Open access has a huge influence on the impact of the research in citations as well as a transfer of basic knowledge to applied research. We propose the following:

• The issues of Open Access, predatory journals, piracy servers publishing in Open Access mode should be part of researchers education within common summer schools, workshops, perhaps PhD curricula;
• Specific approaches and cases studies concerning these issues should be presented/shared; and
• The Focus Group will discuss the situation and propose the way how to express a common opinion on this area, which can be the strong message at EC level.

Focus Group Members 

Focus Group Chair: 

Nikola Kostlánová

Focus Group Co-chair:

Sergej Pirkmajer

Members of the Focus Group: ​ ​

Monika Kuchlei Sieberová
Michal Petr
Michaela Macečková
Silvia Pastoreková
Daniela Gašperíková
Maciej Chalubinski
Srećko Gajović
Nino Sinčić
Ana Babić Perhoč
Ivan Padjen
Toivo Maimets
Eglė Miltakienė
Vida Lapinskaitė
Ieva Plikusienė
Kristijonas Puteikis
Erika Antanėlė
Aiva Plotniece
Maija Dambrova
Tina Štukelj
Nejc Umek
Edit Csajbók
Péter Szluka
Donka Mazgalova
Lyudmila Tomova
Magdalena Kasnakova 
Valentina Anuta
Cristina Petcu