New Trends in the Evaluation of the R&D Project Proposals

"Are the principles of meritocracy REALLY applied in science and its funding?"

"Or are we perhaps less objective in the process of the project proposals' evaluation and drafting than we might think?"

These were some of the questions the UNIZA CHANGE team decided to raise with the organisation of the workshop for the representatives of the Slovak Research Funding Organizations (RFOs): "New trends in the evaluation of the R&D project proposals".  The workshop was held online on the 23th October 2020.

We were happy to welcome chairpersons of the Slovak grant agencies together with the directors of different sections and departments of the Ministry of Education and further guests.

The lecturers Jana Dvořáčková (Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences; Technology Agency of the Czech Republic) and Marcel Kraus (Technology Agency of the Czech Republic) explained the topic of unconscious prejudices occurring in the everyday life and in the process of the projects evaluation, provided recommendations on applying of gender aspects in the phase of calls' drafting and evaluation.  Workshop participants commented on the introduced possible measures. Attention attracted especially policies related to the grants for young researchers considering the care duties of the applicants. We hope that this is the first important step in the cooperation with the Slovak RFOs in order to enhance the equality of the Slovak Research Area.

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