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ARIA

Toward new forms of research intelligence

ARIA (Advancing Research Intelligence Applications) is a collaborative project of TU Delft, Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), Erasmus MC, and Leiden University’s Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS). Like other research organizations in the Netherlands, we are developing new approaches to recognition and rewards of researchers. These approaches need to be supported by new types of structured information about scholarly activities and outputs and new strategies for using and analyzing this information. In other words, there is a need for new forms of research intelligence, tailored to the specific context of our organizations. In the ARIA project, we aim to find out how research intelligence can best be used to support the new approaches to recognition and rewards that are currently being developed by our organizations.

There is a broad agreement in our organizations on the need to reconsider the ways in which staff members are recognized and rewarded in the key areas of education, research, impact, leadership, and patient care. This fits within a broader development in the Netherlands toward new approaches to recognition and rewards. In their position paper, the VSNU, NFU, KNAW, NWO, and ZonMw call for a system of recognition and rewards that:

  • Enables the diversification and vitalization of career paths.
  • Acknowledges the independence and individual qualities and ambitions of academics and recognizes team performances.
  • Emphasizes quality of work over quantity.
  • Encourages all aspects of open science.
  • Encourages high-quality academic leadership.

New approaches to recognition and rewards of researchers need to be supported by new forms of research intelligence, that is, new types of structured information about scholarly activities and outputs and new strategies for using and analyzing this information. The key question addressed in the ARIA project therefore is:

How can the recognition and rewards approaches of TU Delft, EUR and Erasmus MC be optimally supported by state-of-the-art research intelligence?

Recognizing the differences between our three organizations, we will answer this question separately for each of them. However, we also expect significant commonalities between our organizations, of which we will take advantage in the ARIA project.

We aim to connect our work to other initiatives around recognition and rewards in the Netherlands and abroad. Sharing experiences with such initiatives, for instance through the Research Intelligence Network Netherlands (RINN) and UKB, is an important ambition of the ARIA project.

CWTS

Meet the ARIA team