Oulu University of Applied Sciences (Oamk) is a multidisciplinary and international higher education community of 9,000 students and approximately 460 employees. Our close cooperation with companies and communities creates the basis for our students’ high-level and up-to-date competence. The cornerstones of our operations are transparency, sustainability, and effectiveness. The focus areas of our research, development and innovation activities are low-carbon initiatives, digital solutions, and business development. Oulu University of Applied Sciences (Oamk) signed the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment and joined the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) in 2023. The first steps towards a new way to review research and development in Oamk were taken by evaluating the current state of operations and requirements of development to be fulfilled to achieve more responsible research and development assessment. In the preliminary Action Plan for research and development activities (for both R&D and educational activities), the joint title "applied research" is used to emphasize the application-oriented nature of the research and development activities of the university of applied sciences compared to the academic research of the university field. In this document, Oamk describes the connection of CoARA Action Plan to other guiding documents, as well as presents the implementation plan for the years 2024–2027. The development plan is divided in two phases. During the years 2024–2025 Oamk will focus on the building up the required tools, mentoring programs, and operating model to be implemented in coming years. The second phase, the years 2026–2027, will be focusing on the implementation of the Action Plan, evaluations, as well as the further development of the Action Plan for the years 2028–2032.