Some years ago, I was heavily involved in the development of NOR-CAM (Norwegian Career Assessment Matrix), a framework designed to support the assessment and recognition of a broad range of academic activities and competencies. This work aimed to promote more comprehensive and transparent evaluation practices in academia. One thing is developing high-level policies; another is trying these things in practice. I am fortunate enough to direct a research centre (RITMO), which involves a significant amount of career development work daily. I was therefore pleased to be invited by the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) to discuss my experiences with the NOR-CAM principles in an interdisciplinary setting.

Presentation

Today’s presentation was titled “CoARA principles in practice. Insights from a crossdisciplinary Centre of Excellence” and here is a recording:

Below is a summary of what I discussed, based on “massaging” a NotebookLM-generated script.

(Re)defining Openness

I always start these types of presentations by pointing to why I prefer “Open Research” to “Open Science”. For fields such as the arts and humanities, “open research” more accurately captures the breadth of practices that can and should be made openly accessible.

Then I brought up my illustration of the Open Research puzzle to illustrate that it is, indeed, possible to think about opening the entire research chain from application to evaluation:

a series of colorful stickers on a blue and white background

To achieve complete openness, however, it is necessary to ensure that all parts of the puzzle can be properly documented. This is also a core “feature” of NOR-CAM, which requires a combination of documentation and reflection for all elements part of the researcher assessment.

I identify as an interdisciplinary researcher and run a centre with interdisciplinarity in its title. Yet, I am skeptical about forcing everyone to work in this manner. In fact, academic life is generally much easier if you follow a disciplinary path.

One example I often mention in talks about the challenges of interdisciplinarity is how diverse the opinions are about “what is valued” across disciplines. A somewhat tabloid summary can be:

  • In the humanities, securing a professorship often hinges on writing a book
  • For psychology, the journal article typically serves as the “golden standard”
  • In informatics, conference proceedings articles and code often yield the most merit

These fundamental differences—and additional ones that relate to data, code, etc.—create hurdles when evaluating individual researchers or when defining Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for research groups and centres.

I often like pointing to my figure of the disciplinarities, where I draw up the line from intra- through cross-, multi-, inter-, and finally transdisciplinarity:

a series of photographs showing a man’s face and a sign

Despite constant calls from funding bodies for interdisciplinary work, evaluations typically favour more disciplinary work. This should not discourage interdisciplinary projects, but in my experience, it is easier to work cross- and multidisciplinary. In any case, clarifying one’s position always help in collaborative setting.

Practical Pillars for Tangible Change

At RITMO, we have taken some measures to improve both the hiring processes and support the people we hire. I should be careful to say that we do not have all the solutions, but we have developed some strategies that have helped push ourselves and our institution:

  • Hiring Committees: As centre director—and previously as head of department—I have seen the importance of professionalizing academic hiring committees. This includes effective leadership, good HR support, and committee members who are well-informed and know their roles. As for everything, practice helps, and fortunately, at RITMO, we have been hiring nearly 50 researchers over the last eight years. We have favoured committees that are intentionally diverse, focusing on gender balance and having members from all our disciplines (psychology, informatics, and musicology). This has helped recruit a diverse set of excellent RITMO researchers.

  • Career Development Programs: Together with other Centres of Excellence at the University of Oslo, we have developed our own Career Development Programme, which is mandatory for all our recruits. The program recognizes that academic careers involve “multiple paths” both into and out of the university system. Our program actively helps candidates gather the required documentation, identifies skill gaps, and provides targeted workshops on essential “generic skills” such as team collaboration and project management. Since NOR-CAM requests documentary evidence, we also ensure that our researchers obtain a diploma and a transcript of their non-academic contributions to RITMO. This streamlines documentation for candidates, reducing the need for compiling extensive, random materials or relying on endless recommendation letters, and aligns with our broad vision for integrated systems where information can be entered once and automatically propagate across platforms.

Developing a Culture of Sharing and Caring

Next to our formal structures, we have also developed a supportive and transformative culture at RITMO:

  • Culture of Sharing: At RITMO, we do not only share all our ongoing research activities. We also have a system where all applications for external funding must be pitched to the entire center, followed by workshops where colleagues read and provide feedback on proposals. This practice, which some might consider unconventional due to concerns about idea theft, has actually led to a better success rate for applications and higher overall satisfaction among researchers. It also serves as an invaluable learning experience for developing strong proposals.
  • Culture of Caring: We are also working diligently to cultivate a sense of humanity in academia. As university leaders, we must prioritize the care and support of individuals, including their mental well-being. This includes everything from celebrating achievements to supporting people crying in your office.

For me, it has been rewarding to be part of developing NOR-CAM as a high-level strategic tool. As a centre director, I am trying to see how it is possible to make a difference for our recruits. This includes fostering an effective, equitable, and humane academic environment that embraces and supports both diversity and heterogeneity.