EU-wide Advantages & Opportunities for Call HORIZON-WIDERA-2025-06-ERA-03

1. Single Market Access

Leverage a 450-million-citizen knowledge market: Reforming assessment systems EU-wide enables

- Easier cross-border recruitment and mobility of researchers because CV formats and evaluation criteria become interoperable.

- Faster commercial uptake of research outputs (data, software, services) validated through harmonised assessment, giving innovators instant credibility across 27 Member States.

- Creation of a pan-European market for next-generation assessment tools (e-platforms, narrative-CV generators, bias-detection AI), opening procurement opportunities in >3 000 public research organisations.

2. Cross-Border Collaboration & Knowledge Exchange

- The grant requires tight links with CoARA Working Groups, DORA, FOLEC, CoARA Boost, naturally building consortia that span universities, RTOs and funders in multiple countries.

- Multinational pilots (e.g. narrative CV trials in Nordic, Baltic, Mediterranean contexts) allow comparative evidence unavailable in single-country studies.

- Shared infrastructures (EOSC, Zenodo, OpenAIRE) reduce duplication and enable FAIR-compliant data pooling.

3. Alignment with Key EU Strategies

- European Research Area (ERA): Directly delivers Action 3 (Advance research assessment reform), strengthening ERA Policy Agenda 2025-2027.

- Digital Europe & Data Strategy: Promotes FAIR digital objects and open metrics, feeding high-value data spaces.

- Gender Equality & Inclusion: Supports Horizon Europe’s cross-cutting objectives by embedding bias-mitigation evidence.

- Green Deal missions & SDGs: Better assessment of interdisciplinary, mission-oriented research accelerates progress in climate, health and circular economy initiatives.

4. Regulatory Harmonisation Benefits

- Produces evidence that can underpin EU-level guidance or even a future Recommendation/Code of Practice, reducing fragmented national rules.

- Harmonised assessment criteria facilitate compliance with GDPR, Open Science policies and state-aid rules when funding R&I performers.

- Lowers administrative burden for researchers applying to multiple EU or national schemes.

5. Access to Europe’s Innovation Ecosystem

- Consortium can tap into >70 European University Alliances, 24 EIT Knowledge & Innovation Communities, 9 EuroHPC super-computers, and hundreds of EOSC-enabled repositories.

- Engagement with SSH communities across Europe ensures rich contextual expertise (ethics, gender studies, sociology of science) that is hard to gather at national scale.

6. Funding Synergies

Complementary EU instruments can extend impact:

- Marie Skłodowska-Curie: Use Doctoral Networks to pilot new assessment practices for early-career researchers.

- ERC Proof-of-Concept & EIC Pathfinder: Validate tech solutions (e.g., bias-auditing algorithms) emerging from the project.

- Interreg Europe & Cohesion Funds: Support regional roll-out and capacity building in Widening countries.

- Digital Europe Programme: Co-fund interoperability standards and open-source assessment platforms.

7. Scale & Impact Potential

- Evidence produced can inform common EU indicators and narrative CV templates, adopted by major funders (ERC, national agencies), achieving systemic change for ~2 million researchers.

- EU endorsement accelerates global uptake, positioning Europe as the standard-setter in responsible research assessment and boosting its scientific diplomacy.

- Short (≤3-year) project horizon plus EU dissemination channels (CORDIS, ERA Forum, Science Europe) guarantee rapid policy translation.

8. Strategic Value vs. National-Level Action

1. Critical mass: Only an EU call can pool diverse disciplinary, linguistic and cultural contexts needed to stress-test universal assessment frameworks.

2. Economies of scale: Shared development of IT tools and guidelines drastically cuts costs per institution.

3. Credibility: EU-backed evidence is perceived as neutral and authoritative, easing adoption by ministries and funders.

4. Talent circulation: Harmonised evaluation removes barriers for researchers moving within the EU, reinforcing the free movement of knowledge (fifth freedom).

Bottom Line: Participating in this RIA offers unrivalled EU-wide advantages—access to the single market for assessment innovations, embedded cross-border collaboration, perfect policy alignment with ERA priorities, and leveraged synergies with multiple funding streams—positioning consortia to shape the future of research assessment across Europe and beyond.