Ireland’s CoARA National Chapter brings together the country’s universities, technological universities, and its main public research funders around a shared commitment to reforming how research is assessed. Unlike some national chapters that are coordinated by a single funding agency, Ireland’s is led jointly by two universities, and its work sits alongside — rather than inside — the funding-agency reorganisation that created Research Ireland in 2024.
What the CoARA National Chapter Ireland is
The Irish National Chapter was formally presented on 24 April 2024, roughly sixteen months after the CoARA Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment launched. It is coordinated by Dr David O’Connell, Director of Research Support and Policy at University College Cork (UCC), and Dr Sally Smith, Head of Research at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), with UCC’s research office handling day-to-day membership queries. Like other CoARA national chapters, it is not a separate legal body or a new signatory in its own right — it is a coordinating forum for organisations that have each individually signed the CoARA Agreement, giving them a shared space to discuss issues specific to the Irish research system.
Who is involved: universities and funding bodies
As presented at launch, the chapter’s membership comprised ten higher education institutions and three national funding bodies, covering effectively all Irish CoARA signatories at the time:
- Dublin City University
- Mary Immaculate College
- Southeast Technological University
- Technological University Dublin
- Technological University of the Shannon
- Trinity College Dublin
- University College Cork
- University College Dublin
- University of Galway
- University of Limerick
The three funding bodies listed at launch were the Health Research Board (HRB), the Irish Research Council (IRC), and Science Foundation Ireland (SFI). Membership has continued to grow since: Munster Technological University, for example, signed the CoARA Agreement in 2025, and individual institutions such as Technological University Dublin have since published their own multi-year CoARA action plans. As with any active coalition, CASRAI recommends checking CoARA’s own Ireland chapter page for the current roster rather than treating any published list, including this one, as permanently up to date.
Research Ireland’s role: a funding-agency merger, not a chapter takeover
Two of the three funding-body signatories named on the chapter’s original roster — the Irish Research Council and Science Foundation Ireland — no longer exist as separate organisations. The IRC formally dissolved on 31 July 2024 and, together with SFI, was merged into a single new funding agency, Research Ireland (Taighde Éireann), from 1 August 2024. That merger happened a few months after the chapter’s April 2024 launch, so Research Ireland is best understood as the successor organisation now carrying the CoARA commitments that SFI and the IRC each held individually, rather than as an agency that separately joined or now runs the chapter itself. Coordination of the Irish chapter remains with UCC and TCD.
This is where the “DORA-aligned reform path” framing needs a precise reading. The Irish chapter’s own stated objectives, per coara.org, explicitly name “Irish funding agency adoption of DORA and/or other statements on the responsible use of research metrics” as one of the specific issues the chapter exists to advance — alongside peer-review practice and promotion-criteria reform. That is a stated advocacy goal of the chapter, not a documented, completed policy change. CASRAI did not find a primary-source Research Ireland policy statement formally adopting DORA as of this writing; readers who need Research Ireland’s current, authoritative funding-eligibility and assessment criteria should check research.ie directly rather than infer a completed reform from the chapter’s advocacy language. What is verifiable is the structural link: the national chapter treats funder-level DORA/CoARA alignment as a live priority, and Research Ireland is the funding agency principally implicated in that priority given the SFI/IRC merger.
Stated objectives of the Irish chapter
Per coara.org, the chapter’s aims include building a network of stakeholders across the Irish research ecosystem; raising awareness of responsible research assessment; broadening what counts as valued research contribution; sharing policies and practices to inform national-level guidance; advocating for the funding needed to implement reform; and facilitating collaboration between Irish members and the wider CoARA network. In practice, the areas of focus named most specifically are peer-review processes, the revision of promotion and tenure criteria, and Irish funding-agency adoption of DORA and comparable responsible-metrics commitments.
One tangible output already published: the Irish chapter translated the CoARA Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment into Irish, a step aimed at making the coalition’s commitments accessible to Irish-speaking members of the research community.
How the Irish chapter fits into CoARA’s wider structure
CoARA membership is institutional, not national — there is no single moment at which “Ireland joins CoARA.” Each university, college, or funder signs the CoARA Agreement individually and typically publishes its own action plan describing how it will change recruitment, promotion, or funding-assessment criteria. National chapters, including Ireland’s, sit above those individual commitments as a coordinating and knowledge-sharing layer; they don’t replace them. CASRAI has covered several other national chapters using the same structure, including the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Spain chapters, plus how Norway’s Research Council has implemented CoARA through NOR-CAM and how Germany’s DFG has approached CoARA — each shows how the same broad Agreement gets adapted to a different national funding and promotion system. For background on what CoARA itself commits signatories to, and how it compares to the older Declaration on Research Assessment, see CASRAI’s dictionary entries on CoARA signatories and the DORA (San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment), and the comparison of DORA vs CoARA. CASRAI’s guide to DORA and CoARA commitments and to how institutions are actually rewriting promotion and tenure criteria cover the practical mechanics that Irish signatories are working through under the same broader framework.
Frequently asked questions
Is the CoARA National Chapter Ireland the same thing as DORA?
No. DORA (the Declaration on Research Assessment) and CoARA (the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment) are related but separate commitments — DORA is an older, narrower declaration signed by individual organisations, while CoARA is a broader coalition with its own Agreement and national-chapter structure. The Irish CoARA chapter names funder adoption of DORA, specifically, as one of its own advocacy priorities, which is why the two are often discussed together for Ireland. See CASRAI’s DORA vs CoARA comparison for the full distinction.
Who coordinates the Irish CoARA chapter?
Dr David O’Connell of University College Cork and Dr Sally Smith of Trinity College Dublin coordinate the chapter, with UCC’s research office handling membership inquiries. This differs from chapters coordinated primarily by a national funding agency; Ireland’s is university-led.
Is Research Ireland a CoARA signatory?
Research Ireland is the funding agency formed from the 1 August 2024 merger of Science Foundation Ireland and the Irish Research Council, both of which were named as CoARA signatories and Irish chapter members before the merger. Research Ireland is the practical successor to those commitments, though CASRAI recommends checking research.ie and coara.org directly for Research Ireland’s own current, formally stated CoARA/DORA position rather than assuming continuity is automatic or complete.
Which Irish universities have signed CoARA?
At the chapter’s April 2024 launch, ten institutions were listed: Dublin City University, Mary Immaculate College, Southeast Technological University, Technological University Dublin, Technological University of the Shannon, Trinity College Dublin, University College Cork, University College Dublin, University of Galway, and University of Limerick. Additional institutions, including Munster Technological University, have signed since. Check coara.org’s Ireland chapter page for the current list.
