All submitted proposals will be subjected to a peer review procedure. These reviews will form the basis for all funding decisions.

  • Prior to the review process the DocService of BOKU will check the proposal to ensure that all of the formal requirements have been met.
  • Complete proposals will be forwarded to the BOKU Scientific Committee (SC).
  • The SC will consist of up to five international peers and will be chaired by the Vice Rector for Research and Innovation (the latter without vote), supported by the DocService. 
  • Peers may not be scientists and researchers based at institutions in Austria and are expected to be impartial, both professionally and on a personal level. 
  • For assessment of the quality each peer has to appoint three international reviewers for each proposal. 
  • Reviewers must be recognised experts in the field of the proposal and be capable of giving an objective appraisal of the proposal. The Peer must ensure that all important aspects of the proposal fall within the expertise of the selected reviewers. Conflicts of interest arising from collaboration must be avoided (e.g. no collaboration or common publications with proposing PIs). 
  • A review must comprise a written statement in which the reviewers will be asked to address specific questions in relation to the proposal. Reviewers will be requested to send these written statements to the BOKU DocService. 
  • In addition the quality of the application will be assessed by means of a one-day hearing. At this hearing organized by the DocService at BOKU, all competing proposal will be presented. Within the hearing the peers will have the opportunity to discuss the proposals with the applicants and to resolve any open questions. This will allow a competitive assessment of all submitted proposals. Both the scientific qualifications of the consortium and the individual PIs as well as the educational structure of the proposal will be evaluated.
  • Based on the results of the evaluation the SC may suggest to exclude individual PIs from the consortium.
  • On the basis of the external reviews and the results of the hearing, the BOKU SC will decide on a ranked short list of the competing applications to be funded.
  • Based on the ranked short list the Rectorate will finally decide on the proposals to be funded.