Transforming Assessment: the 2025 Global Research Council survey of funder approaches to responsible research assessment

Two years ago, a comprehensive review of global progress towards research assessment reform concluded that “the imperative to rethink the way in which research individuals, institutions and outputs are evaluated is clear and urgent.” This follows a decade in which we saw debates intensify across the research community about how diverse forms of quality and impact can be measured and evaluated, and how research cultures can be made more open, inclusive and impactful.

A bottom-up drive to reform assessment systems through manifestos and principles has matured into a focus on concrete institutional commitments, catalysed by international initiatives like the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) – which now has over 800 signatories to its underpinning agreement.

The Global Research Council (GRC) has made significant contributions to these agendas, leveraging its unique capacity to convene and connect the leadership of funding agencies worldwide. In 2020, it partnered with the Research on Research Institute (RoRI) to publish an influential report on The changing role of funders in responsible research assessment, which included an initial survey of approaches to RRA among its participating funders.

At its 2021 Annual Meeting, the GRC endorsed a Call to Action on RRA, followed by the establishment of an RRA Working Group to carry forward this work.

With this new report, the GRC and RoRI are proud to deepen and extend their collaboration in support of assessment reform. Drawing on insights from fifty public research funders worldwide – collected through a global GRC survey conducted throughout 2024 and into early 2025 – we aim here to provide a comprehensive global perspective on the current state of RRA within public funding agencies, and support funders on their journeys towards more transparent, inclusive and evidence-informed assessment practices.

While conventional modes of evaluating research quality remain prevalent, the survey highlights a growing recognition among GRC participants of the principles and value of RRA, and signals a shared readiness for change across global funding systems.

The GRC is well positioned to foster a global dialogue on research assessment. Notably, nearly half of the responses to the latest survey originate from funders in the Global South, complementing much RRA work that focuses on Europe or North America. The diversity of perspectives captured by the survey highlights varied approaches to RRA, and underscores the importance of context-specific innovations.