The 2025 CoARA Working Group Co-Chairs Forum, held on 12–13 November in Graz, marked an important moment of transition for the Coalition. With most first-wave Working Groups approaching the end of their formal mandate, the meeting served as both a retrospective and a forward-looking exercise: assessing what has been achieved, where challenges remain, and how the substantial labour invested across WGs can continue to support CoARA’s evolving mission.

The Forum brought together WG Co-Chairs, the Steering Board, the Secretariat, and members of the support team. Natalia Manola, CEO of OpenAIRE and co-chair of the Working Group “Towards Open Infrastructures for Responsible Research Assessment (OI4RRA),” participated actively in the discussions, offering insights from both an institutional and WG leadership perspective.

Looking Back: Expectations, Processes, and a Growing Sense of Uncertainty

The first day focused on reflections from WGs, organised into thematic clusters. Groups shared lessons learned, recurring challenges, and the expectations that motivated members to join in the first place. Across these presentations, a clear pattern emerged: Working Groups have produced a remarkable volume of outputs, guidelines, frameworks, conceptual models, reflecting countless hours of voluntary work.

Yet alongside this pride, many Co-Chairs voiced a shared concern: there is no clear path for how these outputs will be taken up, maintained, or integrated into the broader CoARA ecosystem. Participants highlighted a gap between the significant effort invested and the current mechanisms available to ensure long-term impact.

Much of the discussion revolved around processes, particularly the endorsement procedure raising questions about the role, purpose, and visibility of endorsement, and how it can better serve both WGs and the broader Coalition. Several groups also underscored the lack of strong connections between WGs and National Chapters, which limits opportunities for alignment, mutual learning, and contextual uptake of outputs. Many felt that building these connections will be essential for the next phase of CoARA’s evolution.

Strengthening Alignment and Connecting the Dots

Another recurring theme was the fragmentation between highly active WGs working on overlapping topics. Participants reflected on the need for more systematic connections across groups, not only to avoid duplication but to enable more coherent messaging and shared learning. For many, the first-wave WG experience highlighted the challenges of operating in parallel without established pathways for synthesis or cross-group alignment.

These reflections shaped the starting point for the second day.

Looking Forward: From Reflection to Concrete Directions

The second day of the Forum focused on possible approaches for sustaining WG contributions beyond their formal mandate. Co-Chairs divided into breakout groups to explore potential future pathways for the Coalition.

In the group where our WG participated, several non-exhaustive ideas were discussed:

• engaging external consultants (e.g., through Boost) to distill WG outputs, identify synergies, and propose structured ways for them to be used across CoARA;
• developing stronger links with National Chapters, including targeted presentations by WGs to support translation of outputs into national contexts;
• exploring new mechanisms to support coherence and uptake, such as more regular interactions with the Steering Board and more deliberate alignment across related WGs.

While these ideas were exploratory, they reflected a shared recognition that the next phase of CoARA must be more intentional in how it curates, synthesises, and stewards the work produced by its community.

A Community in Transition

The Graz Forum underscored both the depth of commitment across CoARA’s Working Groups and the challenges that accompany rapid, community-driven growth. It made clear that the Coalition is entering a new phase, one that must focus on supporting continuity, strengthening connections among WGs and National Chapters, and developing structures that allow outputs to be used, adapted, and meaningfully embedded across diverse organisational contexts.

If the first-wave WGs demonstrated what a committed community can create, the next phase will need to demonstrate how these collective efforts can become sustainable, coherent, and impactful over time. The conversations in Graz offered a strong starting point for that transition, and a shared commitment to shaping CoARA’s future together.