Transcript Document
COST Trans Domain Proposals
Final Report on TDP SAB
TDP Pilot Evaluation and Selection Procedure
COST Office
187th CSO Meeting, Brussels, 15th May 2013
COST is supported
by the EU Framework Programme
ESF provides the COST Office
through a European Commission contract
TDP-SAB Evaluation
The Trans-Domain Proposals Standing Assessment Board (TDP-SAB) was
introduced in 2008 in parallel to the launch of the Trans-Domain Proposals
evaluation as a means for fostering interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary
approaches within COST
1. Preliminary Proposal evaluated remotely by TDP-SAB
• A varying amount and profile of DC Members / DC Experts involved
at each call, depending on evaluation needs and availability
2. Full Proposal evaluated first remotely and then at a consensus meeting
by an External Expert Panel (EEP)
• Seen the large variety of topics, a sub-set of the remote evaluators
(typically, 40 to 50 per call) has been invited to the EEP meeting
3. TDP-SAB Hearings: final ranking of the proposals and suggestion for
CSO approval
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TDP-SAB Composition
•
•
COST Doc. 205/08: 9 DC Chairs, 18 members nominated by DC Chairs and
TDP-SAB Coordinator
•
External consultant (Georges Wanet) appointed by former CSO President as TDPSAB Coordinator on the basis of 8 working days a year and for 450 EUR / day
•
Five Open Calls: 2008-1, 2008,2, 2009-1, 2009-2, 2010-1
COST Doc. 4115/10: 9 DC Chairs, TDP-SAB members with broad
interdisciplinary expertise nominated by CNCs and TDP-SAB Chair
•
This form of TDP-SAB was never fully activated seen the low number of
nominated TDP-SAB members (12 in total)
•
Therefore, Since 2010-2, a specific TDP-SAB composition was put in place: 9 DC
Chairs, 18 members nominated by DC Chairs, TDP-SAB members nominated by
CNCs and TDP-SAB Coordinator
•
Georges Wanet continued to serve as TDP-SAB Coordinator until 2012-2
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TDP-SAB Summary of Calls and
Approved Actions
• A Total of 810 proposals evaluated over 10 calls
• 34 running Actions (+ 4 suggested for approval)
• Average success rate: 4,8%
Call
Proposals
Actions
Success Rate
oc-2008-1
oc-2008-2
oc-2009-1
oc-2009-2
oc-2010-1
oc-2010-2
oc-2011-1
oc-2011-2
oc-2012-1
oc-2012-2
Total
65
4
6,2%
81
3
3,7%
97
3
63
3
4,8%
98
4
4,1%
73
3
4,1%
90
4
4,4%
59
4
6,8%
86
6
7,0%
98
4
4,1%
810
38
4,8%
3,1%
• Actions allocated to Domains for
administrative and monitoring
purposes
• Actions unevenly distributed by
Domain
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From TDP-SAB to TDP Panel
• Following the 2010 Mid-Term Review of COST, the CSO
established the Working Group “Implementation” to prepare
measures and decisions for the implementation of the CSO
Strategy “Shaping COST for the future”
• In 2012, the CSO decided to use TDP to test a pilot evaluation
and selection procedure to achieve a simple, fair and fast
procedure fully transparent towards the proposers.
• In the TDP Pilot, the TDP Panel replaces the TDP-SAB as the
body supervising the whole TDP Pilot evaluation procedure in
order to ensure transparency, fairness and excellence of the
process.
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TDP Pilot Evaluation and Selection
Procedure
New Proposal Template
More concise, aligned with the evaluation criteria
1st Step “Challenge Selection”:
Independent External Experts evaluate remotely the scientific and
technological soundness of the proposal
2nd Step “Implementation Plan”:
TDP Panel members with invited DC Members evaluate remotely the
coherence and feasibility of the implementation plan supporting COST
mission and criteria
TDP Panel prepares consensus reports at a dedicated meeting
Hearings “Management Capacity”:
TDP Panel with invited DC Chairs evaluate leadership potential,
motivation and drive, organisational and communication skills of the
proposers
Final ranking list established
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Proposal Evaluation – TDP Panel
Composition:
Former CNC nominated TDP-SAB members with broad transdisciplinary expertise are formally appointed as TDP Panel members
Chair and Vice-Chairs appointed by Presidency
Responsible for monitoring all the TDP Pilot procedure
Keeper of transparency, fairness and excellence of the evaluation
process
Involved at all steps of the evaluation
1st step: Validating the independent external experts identified by
COST Office
2nd step: Evaluating the COST mission and criteria
Hearings: Selecting the final list of proposals to be recommended to
the CSO for funding
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Proposal Evaluation
Closing of
Registrations (29/3)
2013
Apr
2013
Collection date
(14/6)
May
Identification of External
Experts (now to 5/6)
2013
Jun
Step 1 Feedback (9/8)
2013
Jul
2013
JAF
(16-17/10)
Step 2 Feedback (13/9)
Aug
2013
Sep
Approval CSO
(14/11)
Hearings (30/9)
(final list)
2013
Oct
2013
Quality Check (29/7-2/8)
Nov
COST Office
CoI / Eligibility (14-19/6)
Validation of External
Experts (14-26/6)
Implementation
Plan:
Remote Evaluation
(5/8 – 24/8)
Challenge selection:
External experts evaluation (1/7 – 19/7)
Implementation Plan: invited DC
Members Remote Evaluation
Consensus Meeting
(9-10/9)
Hearings
(30/9)
TDP Panel
DC Chairs invited
to the Hearings
Other Evaluators
Supporting TDP Panel
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COST Experts Database
Newly developed (in house) e-COST feature
Used for a timely identification of relevant experts
As of 13 May 2013:
~ 9773 registered experts
Gender balance: 65% male, 35% female experts
Age balance: ~64% of experts are younger than 45
Additional effort needed in covering all Research Areas
Special access allows CNCs to contact the external experts in
their country invited to evaluate TDP proposals (CNC bound by
confidentiality)
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Allocation of External Experts
TDP Registrations (closed March 29th): 163 out of 192 intentions to submit are
eligible
Proposal Submission: Deadline June 14th at 5pm (1 proposal already submitted)
External Experts are needed for 163 potential proposals
Based on TDP past experience (1-2 proposals assigned per expert)
4-5 External Experts to assign to each proposal to ensure at least 3
evaluations (total: ~550 experts)
TDP Panel validation of experts to assign on the basis of set of 7-8
experts/proposal available for evaluation (total: ~ 870 experts available)
Availability check to be sent to ~20 experts/proposal (total: ~ 3200
availability checks)
All these steps are supported by a tailor-made in house developed IT system
on e-COST
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Thank you
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