Insights from euroCRIS 2025: Open Infrastructures and the road towards Responsible Research Assessment

The euroCRIS Strategic Membership Meeting 2025 in İzmir brought together a diverse community of research information professionals, infrastructure providers, and policy makers to reflect on the evolving landscape of research information management. A central theme running throughout the event was the understanding that trustworthy research information does not emerge organically; it must be intentionally designed into our infrastructures, policies, and workflows.

The strategic significance of open infrastructures

A prominent focus of the meeting was the evolving relationship between open, community-governed infrastructures and commercial platforms within the research information ecosystem. Discussions highlighted that the choice of infrastructure is not merely operational; it has direct implications for research sovereignty, data governance, and the capacity of institutions to implement reform-oriented assessment practices.

Angeliki underscored that open infrastructures embody values that align with the emerging culture of research: openness, transparency, interoperability, and collective stewardship. These infrastructures support verifiable data provenance, enable multi-stakeholder participation, and avoid dependency on proprietary environments where data flows, metrics, and decision-making processes may be opaque or commercially driven. By contrast, concerns were raised regarding the accelerating consolidation of research information services by commercial actors whose market dominance risks imposing uniform, vendor-controlled standards on the scholarly community. Such concentration can limit interoperability, impede national and institutional autonomy, and constrain the diversity of assessment practices envisioned under CoARA.

The Turkish RIM landscape, showcased during the meeting, illustrated an alternative trajectory: a robust national ecosystem leveraging open-source systems, integrating Open Access policies, and prioritising research information quality. The emphasis on "going local", including support for multiple alphabets, national workflows, and discipline-specific needs, reinforced the argument that open infrastructures provide the flexibility required to accommodate diverse research cultures and policy contexts. 

The CRISCROS concluding panel: readiness for CoARA-aligned outputs

The meeting concluded with a panel moderated by Pablo de Castro, featuring national CRIS representatives from PTCRIS (Portugal), CroRIS (Croatia), FRIS (Flanders), and SICRIS (Slovenia). When asked to assess the extent to which their systems could accommodate CoARA-aligned elements, the panellists acknowledged the relevance of the CoARA commitments but expressed measured reservations regarding their practical implementation in the near term. They noted that existing national requirements, established reporting protocols, and rigid data models present significant constraints on adopting the full breadth of reforms.

A number of representatives, however, indicated that the adoption of richer research contribution descriptions may be a feasible entry point. They pointed to enhanced documentation of activities such as mentoring and other forms of scholarly contribution as changes that could be integrated with comparatively limited structural disruption. Even so, they emphasised that such developments would still require coordinated adjustments to institutional workflows, alignment with national mandates, and the establishment of interoperable standards to ensure consistent uptake across the research ecosystem.

Trust by design: a shared responsibility

Angeliki's earlier reflections provided a conceptual anchor for the meeting's closing discussions. Framing trust as a design principle rather than an afterthought, she highlighted the responsibility shared across the research ecosystem, from global infrastructures to national CRIS managers, institutions, and funding bodies, to build systems that reinforce transparency and accountability at every level.