Evaluation of national R&D units with the support of the European Science Foundation

The first phase of the evaluation of the applications submitted to FCT's Call for the Evaluation of R&D Units will count on the active collaboration of the European Science Foundation (ESF). In this evaluation exercise, 324 units are candidates for evaluation, with more than 15,000 proposed integrated members. Given the size and scope of the exercise, FCT has chosen to involve ESF, benefiting from its more than three decades of experience in international evaluation processes. ESF's involvement will always take place in close collaboration with FCT's departments and management.

The ESF will be responsible for selecting and allocating the international experts for the evaluation of the applications submitted, and will collaborate in all the procedures associated with the first phase of evaluation of the units. The FCT Board of Directors will retain responsibility for appointing the evaluators and panel members selected and recommended by the ESF.

ESF was chosen as part of the consultation with foreign organizations similar to FCT to appoint the evaluation panels for the ongoing evaluation of R&D Units by the FCT Board of Directors. In its mission to promote international cooperation in scientific research programmes in almost all scientific fields, ESF collaborates closely with its member organizations, such as FCT. Supporting project evaluation exercises, scientific networks and institutions is one of the aspects of its work. ESF has been coordinating evaluation exercises for joint European Space Agency / NASA / Canadian and Japanese Space Agencies projects, as well as several European universities and European networks and consortia.

In addition to three decades of experience in carrying out evaluation exercises (its own or for other organizations), ESF has carried out several studies on the practice ofpeer-review by European funding agencies, and has published several reports and guides to good practice.

The ongoing evaluation of scientific research and technological development units began in July 2013. The evaluation of national R&D institutions is regularly organized by the FCT and results in the award of a rating, which determines the amount of funding to be allocated to each institution. This evaluation and the associated funding take effect from January 2015 and is valid for a period of six years.