The external evaluation, provided by a group of distinguished experts under the auspices of the ESF in 2011, has proved an important step for the further development of instruments and procedures at the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS). The report acknowledged a great number of good practices at the agency, however, even more importantly, it served as an impetus to re-think and re-structure the aspects where recommendations for further improvement were provided. Results of the evaluation had significant influence on modifications of the general rules of procedure completed in 2016, and the recently-adopted Strategy of Operation and Development of the Slovenian Research Agency to 2020.

Prof. József Györkös, Director of the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS)

“ESF’s multi-disciplinary expertise and robust processes have proven instrumental in designing and managing competitive calls and evaluations for our research programmes, in particular our AXA Post-Doctoral Fellowships. ESF has also supported an impact assessment of AXA’s philanthropic research programmes including a Career Tracking Pilot. We are looking forward to expanding our strategic partnership with ESF in order to increase the effectiveness of our funding towards academic institutions and researchers in Europe as well as in other Regions such as Asia, Africa and Latin America”.

Raphaël Gusdorf, Head of Selection at the AXA Research Fund

Signs from the ESF’s existing activities in research support are positive: for example, the EU’s Graphene Flagship, with which the ESF has worked since 2012. “The ESF has been a very valuable partner,” says Jari Kinaret, director of the flagship. “By organising a competitive call it has brought in quite a few new partners.” The ESF now leads the flagship’s work package on alignment, to link nationally funded work with that paid for by the European Commission. It also handles cooperation with Korea, the US and Japan. “Later, we may have more international partners and the ESF will certainly be involved,” Kinaret says.

Jari Kinaret, Director of the flagship

The Research Council of Lithuania (RCL) was established in 1991 and underwent substantial re-organisation during the past 5-6 years. Therefore, external evaluation of the RCL carried out by the European Science Foundation‘s Evaluation Committee was a well-timed and essential step that brought benefits not only to the RCL itself by providing the opportunity to measure its activities according to the international standards, but also initiated broad discussions on research and innovation policy in the State among chief actors in this field.

Dainius H. Pauža, Chair, Research Council of Lithuania (RCL)

The AXA Research Fund initiated a partnership with the European Science Foundation two years ago. The ESF has demonstrated great skills in conducting the Post-Doctoral Campaign peer review process. ESF is now handling more than 400 applications yearly for us. Their extensive experience, the quality of their network of researchers and reviewers, as well as the professionalism of the ESF coordination team has proven to be key assets to support the philanthropic initiative of the AXA Group. It ensures fairness, robustness and transparency of the process and allows the AXA Research Fund to meet the highest standards of an academic selection process.

Godefroy Beauvallet, Former Head of the AXA Research Fund

ESF staff worked with professionalism for the evaluation of projects in the frame of University of Torino’s ‘2020 Researchers: Train2Move’ programme, providing an efficient service. Our staff was pleased to have had the opportunity to collaborate with a highly performing team that satisfied our expectations.

Claudia Barale, CSTF – Common Strategic Task Force KBBE, Environment, Energy / People, Università degli Studi di Torino

The European Science Foundation (ESF) provided services of Peer Review support to the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), the Portuguese national funding agency for research, for the latest review of R&D units in Portugal. FCT benefitted from ESF’s deep and thorough knowledge of peer review processes in setting up the structure of the review as a whole, as well as in implementing several of the steps involved in this two-stage complex review. ESF’s thoroughness and professionalism ensured fairness and transparency in all stages of the review, totally in line with the best international practices regarding peer review.

Paulo Pereira, Former FCT Vice-President

ESF administered the competitive call of the Graphene Flagship, which is one of the largest collaborative research programmes launched by the European Commission. As a response to the call, over 700 organisations submitted 220 proposals on 13 separate topics. ESF ran the whole process from setting up the application system, identifying and recruiting global experts, organising and supervising the review meetings, to compiling and communicating the review results and responding to questions the applicant had during and after the process. The Graphene Flagship is very satisfied with how the ESF handled our competitive call, and we are impressed by the organisation’s professionalism in managing large international research calls.

Jari Kinaret, Director of the Graphene Flagship

The Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA) is pleased to acknowledge the excellent service provided by the European Science Foundation (ESF) in conducting its international evaluation within the general context of Hungarian and European public research funding. ESF established an evaluation protocol including appropriate evaluation criteria and methodology, as well as a detailed work plan in consultation with OTKA. The implementation of an independent evaluation study by a committee of experienced R&D executives and researchers, along with the expert assistance from dedicated ESF staff, led to the publication of the Organisational Evaluation of the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund– a report that will serve as a point of reference for a long time to come.

László P. Kollár, President, Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA)