Over the last year, the prestigious Evaluation Centre of the Western Michigan University has evaluated the CORE selection procedure.
Dr Chris L.S. Coryn, director of the Evaluation Centre, presented the outcome of the study at the recent FNR Info Day to the research community in Luxembourg.
The evaluation study is based on surveys of various CORE stakeholders (CORE applicants, reviewers, panel members as well as FNR staff). Furthermore, a benchmarking of other European public funding organisations and international standards in peer-review has been conducted.
The key findings and conclusions
- the CORE selection procedure is transparent, fair, unbiased and impartial
- the procedure allows to efficiently, effectively, and systematically select and fund the highest quality, most excellent, and potentially highest impact research in Luxembourg
- the FNR is successfully implementing what are currently considered ‘best practices’ in peer-review internationally, also testified by other, similar European research funding agencies
- the FNR’s application review approach (i.e. qualitative assessment of applications) is perceived superior to that used by other European research funding agencies (i.e. quantitative assessment of applications) by external reviewers and panelists stakeholders acknowledge the FNR’s efforts to mitigate potential biases (whether real or imagined) and to increase the impartiality and transparency of its selection procedure