Regular Activities

All regular activities are open to external applicants and generally have an annual call (for details of open calls, see Grants, Calls and Applications).  These funding instruments differ in size and scope.  A key task for the office is to make sure that only excellent proposals are selected for funding in a fair and transparent way. This is ensured by

• Peer Review: independent international experts in the relevant field of a proposal are contacted by the office who then provide a substantiated written evaluation of the proposal. Scientists are selected from the ESF Pool of Reviewers insofar as possible.
  
  
• Selection and Recommendation: A Panel, composed of leading experts and/or Standing Committee members with expertise pertinent to the proposals submitted, gathers to discuss the merits of the proposals, based also upon the written evaluations received, in order to make recommendations on which proposals are most deserving of funding and support.  The Office organises and supports these meetings and communicates recommendations to ESF Member Organisations (where applicable) and applicants.
  
  
• Launch of activities: Once a proposal has been selected, the Social Sciences Unit provides appropriate support - depending on the activity type - and aims to help researchers to achieve the highest possible outcome by identifying synergies with other scientific programmes and developing networking activities to create an even bigger impact.
  
  
• Evaluation: once project activities reach completion, the project leader is asked to report back to the Standing Committee, which considers the accomplishment of the original aims, management of the budget, outreach and appropriate follow-up actions, e.g. an Exploratory Workshop may lead to a Forward Look - or another non-ESF project.