About the INORMS Research Evaluation Group
The INORMS Research Evaluation Group (REG), previously known as REWG, was established in 2018 to consider how best to ensure that research evaluation is meaningful, responsible and effective. To this end, group members representing the research management societies that make up INORMS have focussed their attention on two work-packages. The first seeks to draw attention to the burgeoning influence of the Global University Rankings on the behaviours of universities, and to consider how they might be made fairer and more responsible. It does so by developing a method for rating the global rankings in accordance with community best practice criteria. The second seeks to guide senior university leaders and practitioners in the adoption and practice of responsible research evaluation. To this end it has designed the SCOPE framework for, and a series of ‘five arguments’ for engaging senior leaders with, responsible research evaluation.
Group membership is via nomination from INORMS member organisations. Please contact your membership organisation in the first instance. Anyone can join the wider INORMS REG community via the INORMS-RES-EVAL discussion list.
Key Findings and Outputs
Chair:
Dr Elizabeth Gadd
Research Policy Manager, Loughborough University, UK
Elizabeth is the Champion of the UK’s Association of Research Managers and Administrators (ARMA) Research Evaluation Special Interest Group (SIG). She founded and chairs the Lis-Bibliometrics Forum and The Bibliomagician blog. She has a PhD in copyright and scholarly communication and does research into, publishes, blogs and speaks on, topics relating to research evaluation, bibliometrics, rights issues and open access. By day she works as the Research Policy Manager (Publications) at Loughborough University, UK!
Deputy Chair:
Tanja Strøm
Senior Research Adviser at Oslo Metropolitan University
Tanja Strøm is Deputy Chair of INORMS Research Evaluation group, https://inorms.net/research-evaluation-group/.
Her main responsibilities are various aspects of Open Research (Open Science); publication strategies; digital researcher profiles; and evaluation of research. In addition, she advises on policy and program offerings, gives lectures, supervises, and provides research support on these topics.
She has held a number of projects in the areas of Open Access, service development, research assessment and research information and has spoken on these and many other RMA related subjects, for various sector bodies and events. Tanja has served on several national committees, project boards and working groups.
She has been actively involved in a range of training, talks and numerous conferences and workshops at local-, national- and international level. She is a member of “European Association of Research Managers and Administrators”, ACPC “Annual Conference Program Committee”.
Tanja Strøm is a passionate advocate of transparency in science and responsible research evaluation.
She holds a Master of Management degree, bachelor’s degree in Library and Information Science, and a Cand.mag. degree from University of Bergen.
Members:
Aline Pacifico Rodrigues
Manager, Research Support Office, Sociedade Beneficente Israelita Brasileira Hospital Albert Einstein, São Paulo, Brazil
Aline Pacifico holds a degree in Public Relations and a MBA degree in Strategic and Economic Management of Projects. She has been working for 16 years in the field of Research Administration in Healthcare Systems and Hospitals. Within this time she has been specialized in Pre-Award and Post-Award Administration, Assessing Research Performance and Structuring and Leading Research Support Offices. Today, she is Manager for the Research Support Office of Albert Einstein Jewish Institute for Education and Research.
Aline is also President of the Brazilian Research Administration and Management Association (BRAMA), organization founded in 2013 to enhance the professionalism of research manager within Brazilian universities, research institutes, funding agencies and other institutions which exercise the management of science, technology and innovation. She is also a member of the Society of Research Administrators International (SRA International) and holds a member representative role at International Network of Research Management Societies (INORMS).
Dr Baron Wolf
Assistant Vice President for Research Strategy & Data Analytics. Chief of Staff, Office of the Vice Present for Research, University of Kentucky
Dr. Wolf has more than 15 years of experience working in institutional research, effectiveness, and strategic planning. He has served on state and national boards and has presented at national conferences across the country on topics related to strategic planning, use of metrics, and data analytics. He holds a Bachelor of Science from Berea College, a Master’s in Public Administration from Eastern Kentucky University, and a PhD in Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation from the University of Kentucky.
Baron provides data analysis, strategic planning, advises on policy and program offerings. Works collaboratively with other research administration units on campus to provide robust business intelligence tools to faculty, staff, and leadership to improve decision making. Additionally, he serves as Chief of Staff and manages the day-to-day operations of the office. Dr. Wolf currently serves on the national advisory board for the University Benchmarking Project, a new national data collection in the United States aimed at collecting administrative unit data including student affairs, research administration, information technology, financial services, dining services, and many others. The project is a new effort of the National Higher Education Benchmarking Institute.
Corinna Lenhardt
Head of the Agile Staff Unit for University Strategy (“Strategy Lab”) at the University of Münster, Germany (WWU).
Previously, Corinna was Executive Assistant to the Vice-Rectors for Research and Strategic Career Development at WWU. In her function, she plays a critical role in developing, coordinating, and implementing the university’s manifold strategic projects as well as in managing the WWU’s Excellence Strategy 2026.
Prior to her work in science and higher education management, Corinna was a lecturer and postdoc researcher; she holds a Ph.D. in American Studies. She is an avid networker and member of “Netzwerk für Forschungs- und Transfermanagement” (FORTRAMA, Association of German-speaking research and transfer managers) and “Netzwerk Wissenschaftsmanagement” (German Science Management Network).
Dr Erica Conte
Dr. Erica Conte obtained her PhD in Physiology from Western University (Canada). She has been working in research administration and research leadership for 9 years within a hospital-based research institution. She supports the full breath of health research spanning fundamental science through to translational research, health services/policy and knowledge translation.
In her current role as Director of Funding Strategy and Stewardship, she is involved in the responsible research evaluation of both the institution and its individual scientist. She is also very interested to understand, or help further develop, best practices for incorporating aspects of equity, diversity and inclusion into responsible research evaluation. Erica’s work also involves all pre-award support for grants and awards, as well as working with local Foundations to raise research awareness in the public and increase philanthropy to support research priorities. Erica has been an active member of the Canadian Association of Research Administrators (CARA) since 2014, during which time she has held several volunteer positions to help advance the field of research administration in Canada.
Dr Fang Xu
Associate Professor, Institutes of Science and Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Dr. Fang Xu holds a PhD degree in Management Science at University of Kent. She is now an associate professor of the Institutes of Science and Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences. She is also a member of Elsevier B.V. International Advisory Panel, the secretary general of Science and Technology Evaluation Special Committee of China Science and Technology Policy Studies, and the secretary general of Evaluation Method and Application Branch of Chinese Society of Optimization, Overall Planning and Economical Mathematics. Dr Xu’s research filed is S&T management and policy, and research evaluation. Dr. Xu has carried out long-term research on the theory and method of research evaluation, and has rich experience in organizing research institute evaluation , which has played a great role in supporting the macro management and decision-making of CASHQ.
Hirofumi Seike
Management Associate Professor, Tohoku University
After originally trained as an organic chemist at University of Tokyo and The Scripps Research Institute, I had two post – doctoral appointments at Harvard University and Kyoto University. Thereafter, taking advantage of a background of chemical research and international experience, I opened and managed the office of Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in Tokyo, Japan, for two years. The roles at RSC include promoting journals and building the network with the chemistry community in Japan. Since July, 2013, integrating all the experience and expertise in international, research, publishing and learned society experiences, I am contributing to the research support and promotion at Tohoku University, where 17,000 students are taught and instructed by 3,000 teaching faculty.
seike.hirofumi.2s@kyoto-u.ac.jp
Justin Shearer
Manager, Research and Industry, The University of Melbourne, Australia
Justin Shearer is the Associate Director, Research Information and Engagement at the University of Melbourne, where he has portfolio responsibility for research digital scholarship, scholarly communications, and the University’s digitisation centre. Justin is also the Business Product Owner for the Find an Expert Refresh Project, which is tasked with developing a new researcher profile tool for the institution. He also is the leader of the Rankings Sub-Group of the INORMS-sponsored Responsible Evaluation Working Group where he represents the Australasian Research Management Society. Previously, he was Manager, Research and Industry in the Faculty of Business and Economics, where he had a focus on grant and industry funding. He has seven years’ experience in research management, with a particular interest in customer experience, business storytelling, industry engagement, researcher development and research evaluation.
Laura Himanen
Project Manger, CSC
Laura Himanen is a Project Manager working at CSC – IT Center for Science. She is a member of the Finnish expert panel in culture for open scholarship and actively involved in several national forums advocating responsible research assessment.
Marianne Gauffriau
Research Consultant, IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Marianne is part of the pre-award team at IT University of Copenhagen. She is an advocate of open science, especially responsible metrics. Marianne is treasurer of Danish Association for Research Managers and Administrators (DARMA) and co-founder of the Danish Research Indicator Network (FIN). She holds a Master in Library and Information Science and a Master in Evaluation. Marianne’s research focuses on the construction of bibliometrics indicators and responsible research evaluation.
Dr Tee Boon Tuan
Associate Professor, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka
Tee Boon Tuan is an Associate Professor in Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM). He obtained his BSc (Hons.) Mechanical Engineering from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and MSc. Advanced Mechanical Engineering from University of Sussex, UK. He is also graduated from University of Cambridge with PhD Degree in Engineering. Boon Tuan’s research interests focus on building energy management and green technology. He is also a registered Professional Technologist under Malaysia Board of Technologists (MBOT) and one of the committee members for The Malaysia Association of Research Managers & Administrations (MYRMA). In his current role as the Deputy Director of Centre for Research & Innovation Management (CRIM), Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, he has been involved in handling research grants management process and organizing workshops/seminars for research grant application.
Dr William Bramwell
Senior Research Officer at the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU)
Will leads the ACU’s data benchmarking service in key areas of university management and is currently designing new methods to capture the types of research activity and research support structures across ACU member institutions. Prior to this, he was responsible for evaluating the outcomes and development impacts of international postgraduate programmes across the Commonwealth. Will also holds a History PhD from the University of Warwick, specialising in processes of state-formation in southern Africa.
Prof Xiaoxuan Li
Researcher, Institutes of Science and Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Prof. Xiaoxuan Li is a researcher of the Institutes of Science and Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Dr. Li received his doctor’s degree from Peking University. He is now the director of the Management Innovation and Evaluation Research Center of the CAS; chairman of the S&T Management and Evaluation Professional Committee of China Science and Technology Policy Studies, chairman of the Evaluation Method and Application Branch of Chinese Society of Optimization, Overall Planning and Economical Mathematics; member of the advisory committee of DORA. Dr Li has rich experience in the field of science and technology policy, scientific research management, involving science and technology evaluation, human resource management, scientific research funds management, etc.
Email: xiaoxuan@casisd.cn
The group is currently being formed and representatives from all INORMS organisations are invited to join and help develop this important agenda. If you would be interested in participating, please contact Elizabeth directly at e.a.gadd@lboro.ac.uk.