Experts for the FNRS

Identification and recruitment of remote experts

The Fund’s “Analysis, Evaluation & Prospective” service takes care of the identification and recruitment of experts remotely. The objective is to ensure that each funding request can be evaluated by an adequate number (neither too few nor too many) of legitimate experts. Their legitimacy to evaluate a funding request is assessed on the one hand with regard to their experience and scientific expertise and, on the other hand, according to their ability to evaluate the request with complete objectivity and impartiality (verification of the absence of conflict of interest).

To achieve its objectives, the service has built up an expert database since 2010 which includes more than 20,000 experts from around the world. The FNRS is keen to permanently enrich the database of experts so as to cover a wide spectrum of research themes and thus to promote the selection of specialist evaluators for the various files submitted to the Fund. It is also a question of ensuring a certain turnover among the evaluators of the first stage. Evaluators are also supported in the various procedures relating to registration on the platform e-space and the evaluation of proposals for the Fund.

Since 2010, the Fund's administration has continued to improve the proposed evaluation procedures, taking into account the relevant comments transmitted by CS members, remote experts as well as their own observations and analyzes concerning the procedure in force. The satisfaction of them, whether men or women, with the evaluation procedure in force at the FNRS is reflected in the following key figures[1]: 

  • 94.7% believe they have all the necessary information (for example relating to the different financing instruments) to carry out their evaluations.
  • 90.6% said they were (completely) satisfied with the online platform (e-space) and no expert said they were not satisfied (at all) with the support provided by FNRS staff.
  • 93.4% would recommend that other potential experts submit an application with a view to becoming an FNRS expert in their turn.

Following the evaluation activities, analysis reports are written to ensure the smooth running of the calls as well as the absence of bias in the evaluation procedures.

 

[1] These results come from an (anonymous) satisfaction survey launched on December 8, 2020 among experts who carried out at least one remote evaluation for the Fund during the two main calls for projects organized in 2020 ( i.e.  Scholarships and Mandates 2020 and Credits and Projects 2020).

The FNRS is constantly looking for motivated experts to participate in the various evaluation procedures it organizes, paying particular attention to taking into account the gender balance in the selection of evaluators. As part of its gender policy, the FNRS is particularly looking for experts to enrich its database. Many of the evaluations that are carried out for the Fund are paid.

If you are a researcher, you have scientific expertise and you wish to devote time to evaluating funding requests for the FNRS, we invite you to create an account via the online platform  space . Please then follow the following steps:

  • click on “SUBMIT AN APPLICATION OR CREATE AN EXPERT PROFILE” in the menu at the top of the platform home page . ;
  • then click on “Create / Create” under the heading “EXPERT REGISTRATION / EXPERT REGISTRATION” and then on “Continue”;
  • on the next page, click on “1. EXP - REGISTRATION FORM” and follow the instructions displayed on the screen for encoding all your data.

It is important to enter your data carefully and exhaustively in this form. Indeed, it is on these that the FNRS will base itself to, if necessary, propose funding requests for you to evaluate.

If you have any questions regarding registration as an expert, do not hesitate to contact the “Analysis, Evaluation & Prospective” department of the Fund via the email address evaluation@frs-fnrs.be .