Coara Boost second call for cascade funding

The Coara Boost project second call for cascade funding aims to:

• Facilitate the exchange, transfer and adaptation of proven good practices and their adoption in research organisations.
• Catalyse the set-up or transformation of research assessment practices and tools in line with the commitments of the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment.
• Support the development and testing of new and innovative research assessment approaches, models and procedures.

Three types of projects can be funded with a max. duration of one year per project.

• Teaming Projects for knowledge exchange max. €40,000 funding per project;
• Institutional Pilot Projects max. €30,000 per project;
• Institutional Change Projects paving the way for a lasting change max. 60,000 per project.

The call deadline is 23 April 2025 (closes at 17h CEST). All applicants submitting a Cascade Funding Project proposal will be informed of the outcome of the selection process by 15 July 2025. The selected projects will start on 1 September 2025.

As the call is meant to support institutions from across the European Research Area (ERA), only legal entities based in the EU Member States and countries associated to the Horizon Europe Framework Programme for Research and Innovation are eligible to apply. To ensure diversity in the allocation of resources, beneficiaries of the first round of the CoARA Boost Cascade Funding are not eligible to apply. An overview of the 25 projects that were selected in the first round is available in this news article and here.

More information on the context of the call, practical information, the three types of projects, evaluation process and the application platform are available on the Coara Boost project webpage.

The Coara Boost project

CoARA, the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment, offers a platform for collaboration and mutual learning. However, given the complexity of the reform process, providing support for institutions to test, design, and carry out in-depth institutional changes is crucial to implement the Agreement commitments.

The Horizon Europe CoARA Boost project strengthens the operational capacity of CoARA. It provides a means to develop a critical mass for reforming research assessment, to generate gravitas for new members as well as to investigate and implement new models for research assessment.

The project runs for three years until October 2026. The project consortium exists of 9 partners, among others the Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCCA), Science Europe, Young European Research Universities Network (Yerun), and is coordinated by the European Science Foundation (ESF).

€2.33 million of the project’s budget is redistributed to minimum 50 institutions participating the research assessment reform in the form of cascade funding grants.