SYoS panel discussion: responsible research assessment – challenges and perspectives

Participation by NAIF
Six panellists from research, university management, research support, and funding discuss the challenges and perspectives of responsible research assessment.
Organizer

ETH Library and University of Bern

Published

September 16, 2026

Swiss Year of Scientometrics key visual with SYoS lettering
Swiss Year of Scientometrics key visual. Source: Swiss Year of Scientometrics (SYoS). Rights: ETH Library.

Details

Panellists and moderator

  • Prof Leonhard Held — Full Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Zurich and Founding Director of the Center for Reproducible Science and Research Synthesis
  • Prof Fabio Wasserfallen — Full Professor of European Politics and Director of the Institute of Political Science at the University of Bern
  • Eda Elif Tibet — Member of the Swiss Young Academy, postdoctoral researcher at the Wyss Academy for Nature, and associate researcher at mLab, Institute of Geography, University of Bern
  • Catherine Brun — Deputy Head of the Sciences Team at the ETH Board
  • Katja Wirth — Head of the Research Promotion Service at the University of Fribourg
  • Stuart Lane — Vice President of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and member of the DORA Executive Board

The discussion will be moderated by Katrin Brugger, who coordinates advanced research assessment strategies and leads the implementation of the Activity Framework at the University of Graz.

About

The assessment of research performance is undergoing a transformation. There is an increasing demand for the fair, transparent, and responsible evaluation of research quality. This challenges universities, research institutions, and funding organisations to reconcile diverse expectations and sometimes competing requirements — for example, between Open Access and prestige-driven publication practices, or between academic excellence and societal relevance. These expectations and requirements shape the strategic direction of institutions, the criteria used to evaluate discipline-specific contributions, and the recognition of the diverse contributions that scholars make, both within academia and to society more broadly.

This panel discussion brings together representatives from bibliometrics, research administration, funding organisations, and faculty members from universities and universities of applied sciences. It thus provides a platform for diverse perspectives: from those who develop and apply research assessment indicators, to those responsible for institutional governance and evaluation, as well as researchers whose work is being assessed.

The discussion will focus on the challenges of responsible research assessment. Topics will include the interplay between quantitative indicators and qualitative peer-review processes, the balance between comparability and sensitivity to disciplinary and institutional contexts, and the tensions between efficiency, transparency, and fairness. The panel will also address how contributions in areas such as Open Science, knowledge transfer, teaching, team science, and interdisciplinary collaboration can be appropriately recognised without creating unintended incentives.

The aim of the event is to bring together different perspectives, make existing trade-offs and tensions more visible, and strengthen the dialogue between researchers, evaluators, research funders, and higher education institution management. The panel discussion seeks to provide impulses for the responsible evolution of research assessment and to explore how quantitative and qualitative approaches can be combined into a balanced framework that reflects the diverse nature of contemporary research and the values of the scientific community.