Partners and Testimonials

“University of Antwerp has collaborated with ESF for the external peer-review, part of the multi-layered selection procedure for the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Cofund project YUFE4Postdocs. In the two calls launched (2023), ESF ensured a timely and highly qualitative mission, which eased my life as coordinator!   We were pleased with the professionalism and diligence of the ESF team, and for their support and advice in running this large exercise.  We will consider involving ESF again in future evaluation and selection procedures, for projects in the context of the YUFE Alliance and beyond”.   

Anne Adams 
Coordinator YUFE4Postdocs 
Head of Unit, Grants Office - University of Antwerp

“ The cooperation with the ESF was very straightforward and goal-oriented, and flexible when it came to implementing our premises and specifications within the framework of the Clusters of Excellence review. FWF decided to externalise the review process to the ESF in order to ensure that transparency and the rules regarding conflicts of interest can be complied with without any problems" [Click here to read FWF Interview]

Tina Olteanu
Unit Head, Program Management Coordination
FWF - Austrian Science Fund

“ Région Bretagne relied on the support of the European Science Foundation-Science Connect to conduct scientific evaluations for the MSCA Cofund BIENVENÜE programme call 2022, from the search of experts, their recruitment to the production of evaluations. ESF-SC successfully and timely implemented our programme-tailored process.
The appropriateness of recruited experts and high-quality of provided evaluations were noticed by the BIENVENÜE selection panel and the applicants. These are key elements to our decision to rely on the support of the ESF-SC for the remaining BIENVENÜE programme call in 2023 

Dr Ludovic Lhomme 
Head of the Research & Higher Education Office
 

" Fundación Iberdrola España partnered with ESF for peer review support, a key piece of the selection process of the MSCA Cofund Energy for Future (E4F) Programme. This partnership allowed us to mobilize international expertise in five very specific areas of research in a very short period of time. This was critical for the success of the Selection phase of the Programme. I appreciate very much the flexibility, availability, and support of the ESF team during the process. Both teams managed to team up and work in a very efficient and collaborative way "

Teresa Rodríguez de Tembleque
Programe Manager of the H2020 MSCA-COFUND “Energy for Future” Programme
 

“ The Excellence Initiative of University of Lille partnered with ESF for the scientific research project evaluation of around 200 applications in the framework of the H2020 MSCA-COFUND PEARL doctoral programme, and other programmes. This partnership allowed us to focus on other work packages of the PEARL programme we managed. The evaluations were greatly appreciated by the principal investigators because these helped them to improve their projects. The ESF support and communication is professional, efficient and the staff is always available to answer our queries during all process ”

Franck DUMEIGNIL, Coordinator of the H2020 MSCA-COFUND “PEARL” Programme Programme for Early-stage Researches in Lille (doctoral programme)
 

“ FWO has been partnering with ESF since 2018 to conduct the peer review of the applications received in the framework of several FWO calls, including ‘postdoctoral fellowships’ and ‘fundamental research projects’ with over 2,000 research proposals per year.  We are pleased with ESF’s work in appointing external reviewers of excellent standing whose high-quality reviews are much appreciated by FWO review panels. Apart from the effectiveness of ESF support, given the large number of reviews required, FWO is particularly appreciative for the continuous effort to improve the quality of the process in an open dialogue. Flexible and trustworthy partners like ESF are crucial for organisations like FWO that have to respond to the high expectations of the scientific community ”

Dr. Hans Willems
Secretary-General of Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO)
 

“ Since 2018, Ghent University has entrusted ESF to carry out the peer review assessment of our various types of research proposals (multidisciplinary research projects, research professorships, and long-term research programmes).  Ghent University is very positive about ESF’s project evaluation support and the helpfulness and responsiveness of its grant evaluation team.  We appreciate the professionalism of ESF in delivering review reports in due time and of a high level of quality.  This is important for our selection procedure within Ghent University ”

Dr. Dirk De Craemer
Head of Office Secretary of the Research Council of Ghent University
 

" The quality of the process implemented by ESF and the evaluation reports produced (work upstream of the final selection by the Permanent Commission of the Regional Council) contributed to a large extent to the success of the implementation of this new harmonised mechanism at the Grand Est Region level. ESF perfectly adapted to the specificities of the mission during which it demonstrated professionalism, responsiveness, and fairness in the processing of projects. It is important to remember that the deadlines were particularly tight. The schedule was respected and thanks to the reactivity and the involvement of the team, the evaluations were given to the Region ahead of schedule. Finally, I would also like to emphasise the quality of the team assigned to the management of the project, highly professional and qualified. The Region is fully satisfied with the service provided by ESF and warmly thanks them for the work performed "

Christophe Sagnier, 
Research & Innovation Regional Direction, Grand Est Region, France
 

" 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
 

" 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 organization’s professionalism in managing large international research calls "

Jari Kinaret, Director of the Graphene Flagship