EXCELScIOR · EXCELlent Science with Impact, Open and Reliable

EXCELScIOR will develop, extend and fully unlock the research potential of the University of Coimbra (UC, Portugal) through the implementation of a new interdisciplinary ERA Chair devoted to Meta-research (i.e., “research on research”, or Meta-science). Meta-research fosters reproducibility and interdisciplinarity, making science more efficient through better use of research data, more reliable through better verification and ultimately more transparent (open) and responsive to societal challenges and needs. EXCELScIOR strategic goal is thus to improve UC’s research methods and practices, and enhance approaches to integrate information, generate reliable evidence and maximize its impact, in order to increase the scientific production, quality and organizational praxis of Research & Innovation at UC towards EU/ERA excellence. Biomedical Sciences will be the ERA Chair’s primary target during the project’s execution, but the intrinsic nature of meta-research is seemingly apposite and will then continue to revolutionize and advance multiple other research areas, within UC and beyond. The named ERA Chair holder _ Professor John Ioannidis from the University of Stanford _ is considered a pioneer in meta-research, being one of the ten most-cited scientists globally across all sciences. His work in the field attained worldwide recognition and has transformed research in biomedicine and multiple other scientific areas. Under his leadership, this ERA Chair will strive and, in the long term, evolve into a new research to action center _ the Meta-Research Innovation Center - Coimbra (METRIC C) _ bound to operate in tandem with the Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS) and its sister in Berlin (METRIC-B), both of which co-founded and (co-)directed by Professor Ioannidis.