Periodic Evaluation of Research, Development, Artistic and Other Creative Activities - VER 2026
The Periodic Evaluation of Research, Development, Artistic and Other Creative Activities (abbreviated as Periodic Evaluation), or Verification of Excellence in Research (abbreviated as VER), is a peer-review evaluation of the publishing and other creative activities of Slovak scientific and research institutions (public universities and public research institutions).
The Periodic Evaluation is administrated by the Ministry of Education, Research, Development and Youth of the Slovak Republic through its Department of Evaluation of Creative Activities.
The first Periodic Evaluation was carried out in 2022 (VER 2022) for the period 2014-2019. See the results of the Periodic Evaluation VER 2022. The next Periodic Evaluation is currently being prepared, for the period 2020-2024. The results of the next Periodic Evaluation will be published in 2026 (VER 2026).
Compared to the framework of VER 2022, the next Periodic Evaluation will incorporate several adjustments. One of the changes is that besides the assessment of the quality of creative outputs, VER 2026 will also include assessment of research impact and research environment.
Each application for the Periodic Evaluation VER 2026 will consist of three parts:
- Creative (scientific / artistic) outputs
- Societal impact of creative (scientific / artistic) activities
- Creative (scientific / artistic) environment
Each public university and public research institution, or their parts, will submit applications for evaluation in one or more of the 28 research areas (falling under 7 main research groups), presented in table below.
|
Main research groups |
Research areas |
|
Natural Sciences |
Physical Sciences Chemical Sciences Mathematics Biological Sciences Earth Sciences Environmental and Ecological Sciences |
|
Technical Sciences |
Civil Engineering, Architecture, Transport Metallurgy and Materials Science Mechanical Engineering Electrical Engineering Computer and Information Sciences |
|
Medicine |
Basic Medicine Clinical Medicine Health Sciences |
|
Agricultural, Forestry and Veterinary Sciences |
Agricultural, Forestry and Veterinary Sciences |
|
Social Sciences |
Political Science Media and Communications Sociology and Social Anthropology Psychology and Cognitive Sciences Education Social Work Economics and Business Law |
|
Humanities |
Philosophy and Theology Languages and Literature History and Archaeology |
|
Arts and Theory of Art |
Performing Arts and Related Art Fields Visual Arts and Related Art Fields |
In the first module, each application will contain a maximum of 25 outputs (scientific articles, monographs, conference papers, artistic outputs, etc.) in a specific research area.
In the second and third module, applicants for the Periodic Evaluation will submit case studies to assess the societal impact of creative activities and creative environment. The Ministry of Education, Research, Development and Youth SR has prepared a guide for applicants with a selection of case studies (from the UK REF evaluation), illustrating how to declare the impact of scientific and creative activities, as well as how to describe the environment of research, development, artistic and other creative activities.
The inspiration for the Periodic Evaluation of Research, Development, Artistic and Other Creative Activities was drawn from proven foreign systems of science evaluation, in particular the British Research Excellence Framework (REF for short).