Given the significant share of competitive funding in financing research, success in grant competitions has a significant impact on individual career paths. It is often a prerequisite for participation in research and publication activities. Moreover, obtaining funding also tends to be considered as one of the important indicators of scientific excellence. It is therefore crucial to set up the evaluation process in a way that ensures a fair evaluation which is not affected by bias and will lead to the identification of the best projects. Our effort is both to eliminate possible implicit bias related to gender, as well as to support a balanced representation of women and men among proposal evaluators.
We strive to accommodate those members of research teams who have had a professional break, for example due to caring responsibilities or long-term illness. It is generally not necessary to include a full professional CV in the project proposal. We require team members to select a maximum of 5 of their most relevant projects and publications, without specifying how old these should be. In this way, we try to mitigate the impact of career breaks on the further paths of researchers.