Research news
Sussex commits to the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA)
By: Sean Armstrong
Last updated: Wednesday, 17 March 2021
The University of Sussex was among the first UK universities to sign the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), and is marking the start of 2021 by re-affirming its commitments to the key principles of DORA.
DORA builds on the pursuit of research excellence, prioritising quality and impact over quantity and extending the capacity and profile of Sussex as a distinctive, world-leading research institution with impact.
Assessing research according to DORA principles, by evaluating a wide range of research contributions on their own intrinsic merits, will strengthen the profile of research by individual researchers and research groups across the University. In addition, our statement of commitment serves as a demonstration of the University’s alignment with other major, influential research funders, ensuring external acknowledgement of our commitment to the responsible use of metrics.
The commitment to the DORA principles is part of a wider commitment which other institutions are signing up to and is an important part of our journey to embed change to help support us to continue to deliver on our Research with Impact ambitions outlined in Sussex 2025.
Last year we introduced a new research information system, Elements research profile system, supporting researchers to maximise the impact of their research outputs.
Our commitment to the DORA principles will enhance the value of all research outputs (e.g. research data) and other contributions (e.g. influencing policy, training ECRs), in addition to publications.
To ensure that these principles are implemented and embedded across the institution, last term, the University embarked upon a project sponsored by the PVC for Research, Professor Keith Jones and endorsed by the Heads of all academic Schools.
Keith Jones said: “Our commitment to DORA is building on existing good practice and is a significant step forward to maintaining our reputation as a research-intensive institution. It is key to advancing research and impact across all disciplines.
“Implementing these principles is widely recognised as beneficial both for the advancement of research and impact across all disciplines and for the career development of individual researchers – at all stages of an academic career.”
Our statement of commitment was approved by the University’s Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee in December 2020.
Committing publicly to the DORA principles is a key requirement of the Wellcome Trust’s new Open Access Policy, which comes into force this January (2021).
You can read our statement of commitment to implementing the DORA principles on our Research pages, and more about our plan for implementing the principles and the process for monitoring and reporting on progress.