Overview

28 Projects Selected in Second Round of Cascade Funding

The Second Call for Cascade Funding, which opened in February 2025, generated strong engagement from institutions across the European Research Area and beyond, with over 130 applications received. In July 2025, 28 projects were selected as part of the Second Call for Cascade Funding.

To learn more about the 28 selected projects for the Second Call for Cascade Funding, please click the button below:

Click here for the CF2 Projects Overview Booklet!

Types of Projects

The selected projects represent a diverse and balanced portfolio of initiatives that aim to catalyse institutional reform at various stages of development, including three types of projects:

11 selected Institutional Pilot Projects: supporting innovative and experimental projects that explore new assessments approaches, procedures, frameworks, and tools in the context of a clearly defined initiative. Each project may receive up to €30,000, with a one-year duration.
6 selected Teaming Projects: facilitating mutual exchange and knowledge transfer of best practices among up to 3 different organisations. These projects are funded up to €40,000 for one year.
11 selected Institutional Change Projects: accelerating change in procedures and process in an organisation to establish long-lasting, institutional reform. These projects can receive up to €60,000 for a one-year term.

The below graphs outline the breakdown of selected projects in the Second Call for Cascade Funding, showing the diversity of types of projects selected, the geographical diversity of selected projects’ organisations, and the distribution of organisation-type of selected projects.

Cascade Funding Beneficiaries: Second Call

Based on the decision of CoARA’s evaluation panels, the below 28 selected projects are currently underway:

Institutional Pilot Projects

Organisation	Project Title
Sigmund Freud Private University	CoARAverse in Psychology: Piloting reforms to foster and assess diverse research cultures with a focus on participation, qualitative indicators, and peer-review
Karelia University of Applied Sciences	Assessment Tool for evaluating the qualitative impact of RDI activities at Universities of Applied Sciences
Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna	Leveraging the local research evaluation system to raise awareness at the University of Bologna
University of Edinburgh	Adoption by Example: Reflecting Open Research Progress to Guide Transformations in Assessment
European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL)	From skills to recognition: A pan-EMBL Data Stewardship Programme for the Research Assessment Reform
ProArch	APRO – Architectural Projects as Research prOducts: towards shared assessment criteria
CYENS Centre of Excellence	Transforming Research Assessment at CYENS: Towards a Responsible, Inclusive and Impact-Driven Model (TRAC)
Azienda USL IRCCS di Reggio Emilia	FairEval: Developing Fair and Responsible Research Assessment Models at IRCCS of Reggio Emilia
Institute of Economic Sciences	Advancing Research Assessment in Serbia: A Pilot Project for the Institute of Economic Sciences – ARISE
Max Delbrück Center (MDC)	RECAST – Reforming Evaluation Criteria for Assessment, Science, and Teams
FHSS of the University of Zagreb	Responsible Indicator Framework for Humanities and Social Sciences

Teaming Projects

Organisations	Project Title
Lodz University of Technology, Linköping University, University of Aveiro	DIVERSE+: Advancing Diverse and Qualitative Research Assessment Across Europe
University of Suffolk, University of Bedfordshire	Reforming Research Assessment: Building Inclusive, Open, and Equitable Evaluation Practices through Open Educational Resources
Federation of Finnish Learned Societies, Lapland University of Applied Sciences, University of Turku	Implementing Framework for Assessment: Case FIN-CAM
University of Bucharest, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Aix-Marseille University	Laboratory of Engagement with Research Assessment Reform (LERAR): exchanging good practices between three members of one European university alliance, CIVIS
Research Data Alliance Association, Catholic University of Portugal, TOBB University of Economics and Technology	Teaming for self-evaluation in research assessment across scales: from researchers to institutions
University College Cork, AmsterdamUMC	ORFIRA – Introducing an Open Research Framework and integrating Open Research indicators into Research Assessment

Institutional Change Projects

Organisation	Project Title
Museo Galileo – Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza	MUSEVAL – A Framework for Museum-Based Research Evaluation
Université Clermont Auvergne	Integrating Open Science into the Qualitative Research Assessment Reform at University Clermont – Auvergne-OSQuAR-UCA
Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences	REACH – REady for lAsting CHange in research assessment at Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences
Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences (SEAMK)	CAREER‑PILOT: CoARA‑Aligned Pathway Pilot at SEAMK
Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas	Mind the Gender Gap in Computer Science (MindGenGapICT)
Dutch Research Organisation (NWO)	Non-traditional key output in evidence based CVs for applicants
Berlin Institute of Health at Charite	MERIT-BIH Groups: Institutionalizing Fair and Robust Research Assessment of Research Groups through Infrastructure
Fundació Institut de Recerca Biomèdica (IRB Barcelona)	THRIVE – Towards holistic and responsible institutional evaluation at IRB Barcelona
National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation (ANECA)	Pilot Experiments for Innovative Academic Assessment under ANECA’s CoARA Action Plan (PEI3AC)
UEFISCDI	ARIA – Advancing Responsible and Inclusive Assessment at UEFISCDI
Dublin City University	Reforming research assessment throughout the employee lifecycle

The projects are scheduled to launch in September 2025. Stay tuned for periodic updates on development of each project by following our dedicated Zenodo community and through the CoARA Newsletter!

Reviewers

In the Second Call for Cascade Funding, a curated pool of external reviewers were selected to ensure diversity in geography, expertise, gender, and career stage. Beneficiaries of the First Call were also involved in the review process to further reinforce peer learning within the CoARA community.

The 28 projects were selected after careful evaluation by expert reviewer panels. The selections would not be possible without the dedicated effort of reviewers who offered their time and expertise to provide thorough assessment of each application. We want to extend a huge thank you to them!

Reviewers contributing to the first call:

Dr.	Tim	ENGELS	University of Antwerp
Dr.	Julie	NORTHAM	Health Sciences University
Pr.	Bruno	BEU	FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology
Mr.	Marios	DEMETRIADES	University of Cyprus
Ms.	Olivia	DENK	Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences
Pr.	Mohamed	GARGOURI	University of Carthage
Dr.	Sybille	HINZE	Berlin University Alliance (BUA)
Pr.	Mikael	LAAKSO	Tampere University
Pr.	Keti	TSOTNIASHVILI	Ilia State University
Dr.	Oscar Xavier	GUERRERO GUTIERREZ	Cinvestav
Dr.	Tracey	WEISSGERBER	University of Coimbra
Dr.	Natàlia	DAVE	Centre de Regulació Genòmica
Pr.	João	RAMALHO-SANTOS	University of Coimbra
Dr.	Matthias	KIESSELBACH	German Research Foundation (DFG)
Pr.	Federica	CAPPELLUTI	Politecnico di Torino
Dr.	Nataša	JERMEN	The Miroslav Krleža Institute of Lexicography
Pr.	Dominik	ANTONOWICZ	Nicolaus Copernicus University
Pr.	João	CLARO	INESC TEC and Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto)
Mrs	Elpida	CHRISTOU	European Office of Cyprus
Dr.	Anna	SEAGER	Swansea University
Pr.	Toma	SUSI	University of Vienna
Dr.	Xavier	ARINO	Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona
Dr.	Tony	ROSS-HELLAUER	Know Center Research GmbH
Mrs	Veera	JORO	Häme University of Applied Sciences
Mr.	Björn	HAMMARFELT	University of Borås
Dr.	Katarzyna	SWIERK	University of Gdansk
Pr.	Nataša	JAKOMINIC MAROT	University of Rijeka
Dr.	Csanád	BODO	Eötvös Loránd University
Pr.	Montserrat	CASTELLO	Universitat Ramon Llull
Dr.	Dagmar	ELEVELD – TRANCIKOVA	Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen
Dr.	Inês	T. ALMEIDA	University of Coimbra
Dr.	Kamila	LEWANDOWSKA	University of Warsaw
Dr.	Cristina	ARIMANY	IBEC
Dr.	Oleksandr	BEREZKO	Institute for Open Science and Innovation
Dr.	Leoš	HORNICEK	Czech Academy of Sciences
Dr.	Krishma	LABIB	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Pr.	Saša	ZELENIKA	University of Rijeka
Dr.	Eva	MENDEZ	UC3M
Dr.	Pastora	MARTINEZ SAMPER	Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
Mr.	Andreas	RAGGAUTZ	University of Graz
Pr.	Steve	JOHNSON	Leeds Trinity University
Dr.	Hannelore	VANHAVERBEKE	KU Leuven
Pr.	Arzu	GONENC SORGUC	Middle East Technical University

CF2 Selected Projects