Open Infrastructure Checklist for Research Performing and Research Funding Organisations

Open Infrastructure Checklist for Research Performing and Research Funding Organisations 24 NOVEMBER 2025 COARA WORKING GROUP - TOWARDS OPEN INFRASTRUCTURES FOR RESPONSIBLE RESEARCH ASSESSMENT (OI4RRA) 24/11/2025 Open Infrastructure Checklist for RPOs and RFOs Table of Contents Table of Contents ....................................................................................................................... 1 List of Acronyms ....................................................................................................................... 3 Executive Summary ................................................................................................................. 4 CHECKLIST FOR OPEN INFRASTRUCTURES FOR RPOs and RFOs ................................ 6 Organisations affiliated to this WG ...................................................................................... 8 CoARA....................................................................................................................................... 10 Working Group Overview .................................................................................................... 10 Open Infrastructure Checklist for RPOs and RFOs Please cite as: Tzouganatou, A.; CoARA OI4RRA WG (2025). CoARA Output. Open Infrastructure Checklist for Research Organisations . 10.5281/zenodo.17699724 Document Information Output Title Open Infrastructure Checklist for Research Organisations (including RPOs and RFOs) Working Group CoARA Working Group - Towards Open Infrastructures for Responsible Research Assessment (OI4RRA) Topic Open Infrastructures and Responsible Research Assessment Draft Version 1.0 Publication Date 24/11/2025 Output Type Checklist Producer(s) Angeliki Tzouganatou and the CoARA OI4RRA WG Project Leader(s) Natalia Manola and Clifford Tatum Editor(s) Angeliki Tzouganatou Reviewer(s) Participants at the Open Science Fair 2025 workshop for RRA Other contributors Teresa Teixeira Lopo and Iryna Kuchma Status Final Revision history Version Date Revised by Comments 1 24/11/2025 Open Infrastructure Checklist for RPOs and RFOs List of Acronyms CoARA Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment EOSC European Open Science Cloud OIs Open Infrastructure OpenAIRE Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe OS Open Science OI4RRA Open Infrastructures for Responsible Research Assessment, CoARA Working Group “Towards Open Infrastructures for Responsible Research Assessment” RRA Responsible Research Assessment WG Working Group Open Infrastructure Checklist for RPOs and RFOs Executive Summary This checklist has been developed within the CoARA Working Group “Towards Open Infrastructures for Responsible Research Assessment (OI4RRA)”, as a practical extension of the group’s foundational output Open Infrastructures for Responsible Research Assessment: Principles and Framework. It translates the principles, and characteristics defined in that framework into an actionable tool that supports Research Organisations— including both Research Performing Organisations (RPOs) and Research Funding Organisations (RFOs), in selecting and evaluating Open Infrastructures (OIs) aligned with Responsible Research Assessment (RRA). The Framework established four core pillars that define an Open Infrastructure fit for RRA: Technical Robustness, Operational Capacity, Community-driven Practices, and Ethical & Inclusive Foundations. These categories capture the essential capabilities required for infrastructures to support transparent, equitable, auditable, and future-ready assessment workflows. They reflect the need for systems that can handle diverse research outputs, integrate qualitative and quantitative evidence, ensure traceability, uphold FAIR data principles, promote equity, and operate under community governance. This checklist distills those pillars into a clear, practical guide that decision-makers can apply directly when assessing whether a system qualifies as an OI4RRA. It builds on the ethical, technical, and operational expectations detailed throughout the Principles and Framework output. Designed for research managers, funding officers, librarians, IT personnel, and other decision-makers, the checklist helps organisations: • Evaluate whether a candidate infrastructure is transparent, auditable, and community-governed • Ensure alignment with RRA and Open Science practices • Identify risks such as black-box algorithms, vendor lock-in, or inadequate data governance • Compare multiple infrastructures through a consistent, principles-based lens • Support transitions away from proprietary systems toward trustworthy, open, and community-owned alternatives Grounding each criterion in the OI4RRA Framework, this checklist offers a coherent bridge from principles to adoption. It enables organisations to operationalize the vision articulated in the Frameworky, that RRA cannot be achieved on closed, opaque, or commercially controlled platforms, but requires infrastructures that are transparent, interoperable, ethically designed, community-governed, and globally inclusive. Importantly, the checklist has undergone community validation during the Open Science Fair 2025 workshop “Collaborative Pathways to Responsible Research Assessment via Open Infrastructures: From Principles to Practice.” Feedback from practitioners, research Open Infrastructure Checklist for RPOs and RFOs managers, and funders contributed to refining the clarity, scope, and practical applicability of the tool. This tool is intended to accelerate the transition to OI4RRA by providing a simple yet rigorous mechanism for aligning organisational choices with CoARA’s vision for fair, contextualized, and sustainable research assessment. Open Infrastructure Checklist for RPOs and RFOs CHECKLIST FOR OPEN INFRASTRUCTURES FOR RPOs AND RFOs Open Infrastructure Checklist for RPOs and RFOs Open Infrastructure Checklist for RPOs and RFOs Organisations affiliated to this WG • OpenAIRE AMKE • Leiden University (CWTS) • Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) • Federation of Finnish Learned Societies (TSV) • Ss Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje • University of Minho • Masaryk University • OpenCitations • University of Debrecen • Trinity College Dublin • University of Bologna • Universities Norway • NIFU (Nordic institute for studies of innovation, research and education) • EIFL • Netherlands Research Council (NWO) • COKI (Australia) * • National Institute of Informatics (NII, Japan) * • Michael J. Fox Foundation (United States) * • Technische Universiteit Delft • West and Central African Research and Education Network (WACREN, Ghana) * • Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Netherlands) • UEFISCDI (Romania) • University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) • Netherlands eScience Center (RSD) • UKRN • NASA TOPS* • University of South-Eastern Norway • University of Hamburg • INRIA • Athena Research Center • LMU Munich • Université Côte d’Azur • University of Novi Sad • University of Padua • Lusófona University • Petre Shotadze Tbilisi Medical Academy • CSC – IT Center for Science • Netherlands eScience Center (RSD) • Library and Information Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences