FOLEC 2025 – Scientific evaluation: horizons, configurations and proposals
Within the framework of the X Latin American and Caribbean Conference on Social Sciences of CLACSO, the FOLEC Forum “Scientific Evaluation: Horizons, Configurations and Proposals” was held on June 10 and 11, 2025. It was organized by the Latin American Forum on Scientific Evaluation (FOLEC) together with the Working GroupsOpen Science as a common good"And"Mobile and Politicized Social Science“This space brought together more than 60 panelists from Latin America, the Caribbean and other regions of the world around a common goal: to collectively rethink academic and scientific evaluation systems from a situated, fair and socially relevant perspective.
The Forum featured a diverse and robust agenda, including panels on institutional and national reforms in evaluation, experiences of engagement with non-academic actors, methodological proposals for evaluating the social impact of knowledge, and debates on regulatory frameworks for evaluation in the region. Experiences such as that of the AGORRA Observatory were presented, the SILEU System, the FOLEC-CWTS-IDRC project on financing flows in the Global South (Tracking research funding flows in the Global South for more transparent and inclusive science), and the recent Advanced Diploma in Scientific and Academic Evaluation, among others. The delivery of the “Dominique Babini” Award, which highlights innovative trials and experiences in open science.
With the support of institutions such as Redalyc, DOAJ, CWTS (Leiden University), IDRC, SEGIB, and MINCIENCIAS Colombia, this event consolidated FOLEC as a key space for regional and international collaboration, promoting evaluative approaches that recognize epistemic diversity, open access, and the scientific sovereignty of our peoples. In this sense, the Forum not only highlighted concrete alternatives to the hegemonic evaluation paradigm but also opened a transformative horizon based on the creation of inclusive, contextualized public policies committed to the common good.
Scientific evaluation is neither neutral nor purely technical: it is a political tool that guides the production of scientific and technological knowledge. Therefore, at FOLEC-CLACSO, we reaffirm the importance of these forums for collectively designing new criteria, models, and meanings for academic evaluation in Latin America and the Caribbean. Because, as Mariátegui stated, it is not about imitating or copying, but about heroically creating from our own realities.
