RESEARCH PROJECTS

DIVERSE+: FAIRER AND MORE

inclusive research

assessments

The DIVERSE+ project (Advancing Diverse and Qualitative Research Assessment Across Europe) has been awarded funding under the CoARA Second Boost call. The Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) is a collective of organisations committed to reforming the methods and processes by which research, researchers, and research organisations are evaluated. Current research assessment methods rely heavily on publication-based metrics such as citation counts, and often fail to recognise the wide array of contributions made by researchers.

This project is led by Łódź University of Technology, and in collaboration with Linköping University and the University of Aveiro. The project’s impact lies in piloting a structured scheme for the exchange of practices on new forms of research evaluation. Its focus is twofold: recognising the diversity of research contributions and promoting assessment approaches based on qualitative evaluation rather than narrow metrics. ‘The proposed joint knowledge-sharing pathway has the potential to enhance research evaluation standards at each institution, which in the medium and long term may lead to higher-quality research’, says Agnieszka Dybała-Defratyka, Director of the Research Support Centre at Łódź.

DIVERSE+ seeks to empower institutions, enrich academic careers, and create lasting impact by valuing the full spectrum of contributions that drive science and society forward. Dybała-Defratyka: ‘The concrete results from DIVERSE+ will include the report of the mapping’s findings, the written guidelines and the plans for institutional changes. Finally, all of these will be shared within ECIU.’

SustAInLivWork: Making AI sustainable, and ethical

What’s in a name? SustAInLivWork is a so-called Centre of Excellence for sustainable living and working, set up by ECIU’s Kaunas University of Technology. The main goal is building a responsible, sustainable AI ecosystem that serves society.

The SustAInLivWork Centre of Excellence was launched in 2023 and is built on strategic collaboration between Lithuania’s four leading universities and ECIU partners Hamburg University of Technology and Tampere University. The centre focuses on four sectors: industry, energy, transport, and health, that all have their respective challenges. SustAInLivWork hopes to tackle these challenges with sustainable, AI-driven advancements.

Because that’s at the heart of the initiative: advancing AI for a sustainable world. It means that artificial intelligence should be explainable, sustainable and ethical. As the Centre of Excellence’s director, Agnė Paulauskaitė-Tarasevičienė, explained in an article on the initiative’s website: ‘It is not enough to have AI – you need to understand how it works and who it serves.’

Instead of the big tech ‘black box’ that AI currently is packaged as, Paulauskaitė-Tarasevičienė hopes the ‘glass box approach’ becomes the norm. ‘Having explainable AI puts people back into the decision chain and allows AI to be used as an assistant rather than an autonomous tool.’

What separates SustAInLivWork from many other initiatives and projects is that the Centre of Excellence does not solely focus on developing technology or skills. It is a long-term cross-sector platform which connects research, business, the public sector and society. This means the centre does not only offer training and education facilities, but is also working on AI laboratories and systems, testing and data analysis and creating new patents, just to name a few activities.

'The ECIU Research Labs
foster collaboration across disciplines and countries'

Research Labs: Building the future of collaborative research

ECIU is always looking for innovations in research and aims to use the strength of its network to develop and submit strong funding applications. ECIU and INSA Rouen hosted online and physical events during 2025, designed to spark new collaborations and shape ambitious research proposals across the ECIU network. In total, 50 researchers and research support staff from eleven ECIU partner universities connected, shared ideas, and laid the foundation for joint applications to European, international or
interregional funding opportunities.

The impact of this initiative lies in its structured approach to nurturing research collaboration. Researchers participating in the online event worked together to refine ideas into one-page proposals, that are then further co-developed in a dedicated two-day on-site workshop at INSA Rouen. This novel approach combines early online networking with deeper, face-to-face co-creation to strengthen proposals and partnerships. ‘The ECIU Research Labs foster collaboration across disciplines and countries and empower researchers from across the ECIU to transform ideas into impactful projects that address Europe’s most pressing societal challenges’, stated Gilles Gasso, Director of Research at INSA Rouen.