On October 28th, 2022, the Sino-Europe High-level Roundtable on Research Assessment co-hosted by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and Springer Nature was successfully held in the form of a hybrid meeting. Representatives from prestigious universities, research institutions and funding agencies at China, the UK, Germany, Sweden, etc., participated in the roundtable discussion.

Prof. Xie Xincheng, Vice President of NSFC, delivered welcoming remarks at the opening ceremony, and Mr. Steven Inchcoombe, Chief Publishing Officer of Springer Nature, made a welcoming speech on behalf of the Europe side. Prof. Chen Yongjun, Executive Director-General, and Dr. Dai Yafei, Deputy Division Director of the DIS, Prof. Yin Wenxuan, Deputy Director General, Zhao Chuang, Division Director, and Shen Jie, Program Officer of the BIC, NSFC as well as staff members from Springer Nature also attended the meeting.

Prof. Kai Wu, Vice Dean of Faculty of Science of Peking University, and Prof. David Sweeney of the University of Birmingham and former Executive Director of Research England, delivered keynote reports entitled Metrics- and Merit-based Research Assessments in China and Reforming Research Assessment in the UK on behalf of NSFC and the Europe side respectively. During the discussion session, Academician Jin Li, President of Fudan University, Academician Yang Xueming, Vice President of Southern University of Science and Technology, Prof. Wu Kai, Peking University, Prof. Bao Huiming, Nanjing University, together with Magdalena Skipper, Editor-in-Chief of Nature, Maria Thuveson, Executive Director of the Swedish Research Council, Silvia Gómez Recio, Secretary General at YERUN, and Asifa Akhtar, Vice President of Max Planck Society engaged in extensive discussions and exchanges on topics including the importance of identifying common values and principles, the diversity of metrics，identifying the needs of shifting emphasis on individuals contribution to team contribution and the need of supporting ECRs to engage in interdisciplinary research, etc.

Since 2018, NSFC has put the improvement of the evaluation mechanisms at the core of its reform tasks, with a particular focus on promoting Category-specific review, implementing Peer review featuring “Responsibility + Credibility + Contribution (RCC)” and AI-Assisted Management, with the purpose of nurturing a differentiated, accurate, fair and efficient review system. The reform efforts of NSFC have been widely recognized and acclaimed by the international scientific community. Springer Nature, as the first large publisher to sign the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), is also a strong champion of promoting a worldwide reform of research assessment.

The Sino-Europe High-Level Roundtable provides a platform for in-depth exchanges on related topics concerning research assessment between the two sides, which is of great significance for NSFC to further contribute to the reform of research assessment system together with its international partners.