AI in Research Evaluation: Ethics, Boundaries, and Institutional Good Practices

Invitation to the EDUC-WIDE RAEG research workshop titled “AI in Research Evaluation: Ethics, Boundaries, and Institutional Best Practices”.

Where do we draw the line between AI "merely" polishing the grammar of a text–and it actually evaluating the professional content? And ultimately: is it acceptable for an algorithm to decide whether the work of a colleague or a student is good enough?

These are not rhetorical questions. Grant evaluations, publication processes, and the assessment of academic research work are increasingly intersecting with artificial intelligence — often without any meaningful professional debate taking place. This professional event, specifically designed for researchers, aims to address exactly that gap.

What interests us is not the technical operation itself, but what lies behind it: questions of principles, ethics, and professional quality. We will also explore what “fair evaluation” means in practice: how our own human decisions can introduce bias, how AI can distort evaluation processes, and how the combination of the two can be used to develop genuine best practices. The workshop will also address slow science, the professional recognition of failure, and how shared achievements can be made more visible.

Programme:

09:00 - 09:05 Opening Remarks (András Zsidó, University of Pécs, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Institute of Psychology)

09:05 - 09:45 AI Guidelines of the University of Pécs (Mihály Maljusin, University of Pécs Library and Knowledge Centre)

09:45 - 11:15 Interactive workshop with small-group activities. We will work through real-life scenarios such as the evaluation of international grant applications, peer review of journal articles, and the assessment of academic career progression (narrative CVs).

Online presentations by guest speakers from the University of Cagliari:

11:30 - 11:50 AI and the Future of Research Evaluation (Luciano Colombo, Vice-Rector for Research, University of Cagliari)

11:50 - 12:00 Q&A session

12:00 - 12:20 Researcher Well-being and Fair Evaluation (Ester Cois, PhD in Gender and Family Studies, Professor of Environmental and Territorial Sociology at the University of Cagliari)

12:20 - 12:30 Q&A session

12:30 - 12:40 Closing Remarks

Date: 15 May 2026 (Friday)