HAUT CONSEIL DE L'EVALUATION DE LA RECHERCHE ET DE L'ENSEIGNEMENT SUPERIEUR

Their core work

HCERES is France's independent national authority for evaluating higher education institutions, research units, and doctoral programs — the French equivalent of the UK's REF or Italy's ANVUR. Their core work is systematic quality assessment: they examine universities, grandes écoles, and public research laboratories against methodological frameworks, then publish evaluation reports that influence funding and institutional accreditation decisions. In H2020, they contributed this institutional evaluation expertise to two complementary European projects: one applying AI and text mining to science policy intelligence, and one shaping governance frameworks for responsible open science and research integrity. Their value to consortia is not as a research producer but as a credible public authority whose assessments carry regulatory weight in France and methodological credibility across European research governance circles.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

HCERES entered H2020 with both projects starting in 2021, so there is no meaningful multi-year temporal arc — their full portfolio spans a single cohort. Within that cohort, however, there is a visible thematic split: IntelComp engaged them on the computational and data infrastructure side of science policy (NLP, text mining, HPC, academia-industry engagement), while ROSiE pulled them toward the normative and governance dimensions (research ethics, misconduct, responsible innovation, citizen science). If a direction can be inferred, it points toward HCERES deepening its role in European research integrity governance rather than in technical AI tooling — the ROSiE thematic cluster maps far more closely to their statutory mandate as an evaluation authority.

HCERES appears to be moving toward active participation in European research integrity governance frameworks, consistent with growing EU-level demand for national evaluation bodies to anchor open science and anti-misconduct standards.

How they like to work

HCERES has joined all H2020 projects as a participant, never as coordinator — a pattern consistent with a public regulatory body that brings institutional authority and domain knowledge rather than project management capacity. Both projects placed them in mid-sized European consortia (25 unique partners across 11 countries), suggesting they are comfortable operating as a specialist node in larger policy-oriented networks. Their value in a consortium is reputational and methodological: their involvement signals that a project's findings will be grounded in real evaluation practice, which matters when outputs are intended to influence policy.

HCERES has built connections with 25 distinct consortium partners across 11 countries through just two projects — a relatively broad geographic spread for a portfolio of this size, reflecting the pan-European composition typical of science governance and open science initiatives. No repeat-partner pattern can be detected given the small sample.

What sets them apart

HCERES occupies a rare position in European consortia: a national statutory evaluation authority rather than a university, research institute, or consultancy. This distinction matters because their assessments of research quality carry formal weight in France's academic system, making them a credible anchor for any project that needs to translate European research integrity standards into national practice. For consortia working on open science policy, research ethics regulation, or science evaluation methodology, having a national evaluation body as a partner signals institutional uptake from day one — something no university or think tank can replicate.

Highlights from their portfolio

• ROSiE
  Directly aligned with HCERES's statutory mission — shaping responsible open science governance across Europe, covering research integrity, misconduct, and citizen science in a 2021-2024 Innovation Action.
• IntelComp
  Their highest-funded project (€146,775) and an unusual combination: a public evaluation authority contributing to an AI/HPC competitive intelligence platform for science policy — demonstrating applied data literacy beyond their traditional audit role.