ARION project launches in Athens: partners set out to turn research assessment reform into everyday practice

On 16-17 September 2026, representatives of ARION's 14 participating organisations, together with colleagues contributing through DORA's role as a strategic global partner in responsible research assessment, met in Athens for the official kick-off of a new Horizon Europe Coordination and Support Action, coordinated by OpenAIRE. The meeting marked the start of a project focused on addressing a key challenge in research assessment reform; translating principles and commitments into concrete institutional practices and sustainable change.

The project's full name, Advancing Research assessment through Integrated Open practices and Narrative, reflects its focus on advancing the implementation of responsible research assessment. Building on the principles, guidance and practical work of existing research assessment reform initiatives, ARION aims to support their further implementation across diverse institutional contexts: helping universities, funders and research organisations embed responsible research assessment into governance structures, recruitment and promotion procedures, and the digital systems that shape how research careers are evaluated.

Coordinated by OpenAIRE, the 36-month project brings together 14 formal participating organisations, including universities, a research funder, career and assessment specialists, open infrastructure providers and international responsible research assessment comm

The partnership brings together universities, a research funder, career and assessment specialists, open infrastructure providers and international responsible research assessment communities. Their diverse institutional contexts and experience provide the foundation for developing, testing and adapting approaches that can support reform beyond the original consortium.

Two days, four work packages, one shared starting point

Day one began in Athens with welcomes from project coordinator Natalia Manola (CEO of OpenAIRE) and the project manager Angeliki Tzouganatou (OpenAIRE), followed by contributions from European Commission representatives who outlined expectations for the project's first reporting period and provided an overview of the relevant policy context, including CoARA, DORA and the wider European Research Area agenda within which ARION will operate. 

WP1 - Groundwork for Change: Readiness and implementation pathways: Focuses on evidence gathering and institutional readiness profiling to establish the different starting points of participating organisations and inform the development of an integrated reform support package.

WP2 - The Living Lab: Co-Designing and ValidatingReform in Practice: Addresses pilot design, tool readiness and monitoring, supporting the implementation and assessment of the project's interventions.

WP3 - Empowering Change Agents: Building Skills and Communities: Covers training, certification and peer-learning networks, with an emphasis on supporting institutional "champions" to facilitate and sustain change within their organisations.

WP4 - Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation: Scaling Impact from Pilots to Pan-European Adoption: Leads communication and strategic outreach activities, alongside an Early Adopter Programme aimed at engaging organisations beyond the consortium and supporting wider uptake of the project's approaches.

WP5 - Project Management: Coordination, Integrity and Strategic Alignment: Establishes the structures and procedures supporting coordination, collaboration, financial and administrative management, quality assurance and ethics throughout the project.

The discussions helped partners identify the connections between work packages, clarify initial responsibilities and highlight the priorities requiring coordination during the first months of implementation.

Where the reform gets tested

Day two focused on moving from planning towards implementation. The morning began with a pilot coordination session addressing baseline assessment and establishing shared expectations for the work of the eight pilot institutions. Partners then continued in parallel breakout sessions organised around ARION's four intervention areas:

• Narrative CVs: giving researchers room to contextualise their contributions and career paths beyond publication counts

• Open Infrastructure-enableds Researcher Profiles: using open, interoperable research information to surface a broader range of research activity
• Institutional Model Policies: building reform into the governance frameworks institutions already run on
• HR Toolkits: embedding RRA principles into recruitment and career progression processes

Each breakout group addressed the immediate needs, risks and coordination points associated with its intervention area, followed by a joint discussion on areas of overlap and interdependencies. The discussions highlighted the connections between the four intervention areas and their complementary roles in supporting institutional change.

A joint afternoon with REWIRE

The second day concluded with a joint session with REWIRE, a sister project working on related areas of reproducibility and research assessment. Following the two consortia presented their respective approaches, outlining their objectives, activities and areas of common interest. Mixed breakout groups then discussed potential areas for knowledge exchange and collaboration, identifying opportunities for continued interaction between the projects.

It's an early signal of how ARION intends to operate as one node in a broader European effort to make assessment reform stick, alongside parallel initiatives working the same problem from different angles.

What comes next

With the kick-off behind it, ARION's first months will focus on mapping the responsible research assessment landscape, engaging stakeholder communities, and carrying out the institutional readiness work that will determine how each pilot institution combines the four intervention areas. Training and mentoring activities are being laid ahead of iterative pilot testing over the coming year.

"We want to change the world of research assessment - to move it from theory into practical solutions."

- a partner, on the sidelines of the kick-off meeting

The statement captures the ambition at the heart of ARION: to support the transition from policy commitments and principles towards practical approaches embedded in the everyday structures through which institutions make decisions. Two days in Athens cannot deliver that change on their own, but they established a common foundation for the partners, with shared priorities, a common framework for collaboration and clear next steps for the project's 36-month implementation.