The idea of accountability for research institutions receiving public funds based on the quality and impact of their research sparked already sixty years ago with the publication of de Sola Price's "Little Science, Big Science." The notion that publicly funded researchers should be held accountable for their work was a groundbreaking concept at the time. Today, this imperative has become a global reality.

However, as the scientific landscape has evolved alongside changing societal expectations, new challenges have emerged. The pace of scientific progress has accelerated, and the nature of research has become increasingly complex. In addition to these technical challenges, there is a growing recognition that research assessment must prioritize diversity, inclusiveness, and transparency.

These exogeneous and endogenous dynamic processes have crystalized into an altered and broadened understanding of the concept of quality. Consequently, contemporary practices in research assessment, rooted in the traditional perspective on research quality in terms of knowledge flows and reuse, are insufficiently geared towards capturing this broad spectrum of research characteristics.

In this lecture, I will delve into this altered concept of quality and its multi-facetted nature. In addition, the lecture will highlight recent findings and explore emerging initiatives and research lines in research assessment that try to respond to those challenges while acknowledging the basic idea of researcher accountability.