Research Infrastructures

RI Roadmap

Evaluation

Proposals submitted for inclusion on the National Roadmap of Research Infrastructures of Strategic Relevance were evaluated according to two criteria: scientific merit and strategic relevance.

The scientific merit of the proposals is evaluated by internationally recognised scientists, experts in each scientific area, according to three criteria:

Scientific and technological excellence of the RI
Governance capacity and implementation feasibility
Budget and sustainability

The evaluation panels award each proposal a score (between 1 and 9) and a recommendation of integration, or not, in the roadmap.

The strategic relevance of the proposals is evaluated by representatives of the five regional Comissões de Coordenação de Desenvolvimento Regional (commissions for coordinated regional development) and of the Autoridades de Gestão dos Programas Regionais(authorities for the management of regional programmes) for the Azores and Madeira. This evaluation considers the following criteria:

RI’s contribution to the regional and/or national development strategy
RI's contribution to the strengthening of national and international competitiveness
Potential for social and economic development and for the implementation of public policies on science and technology

Selected proposals are also evaluated for their capacity to link to European research infrastructures, within the framework of the European Strategy Forum on European Infrastructures as well as their strategic relevance for the development of the Portuguese scientific and technological system.

After the evaluation of scientific merit and strategic relevance, each proposal was given one of the following categories, in accordance to the Evaluation Guidelines:

Category 1 - those that have demonstrated high scientific potential and are considered to have high strategic regional and/or national relevance;
Category 2 – those that have demonstrated high scientific potential and quality but still need further work on the implementation and sustainability capacity and have not been considered closely articulated with the highest priority regional and national policies;
Category 3 – those that have demonstrated medium or low scientific quality or impact and/or have been considered to have or demonstrated none or weak relation with regional and national policies and priorities.

Proposals recommended to integrate the roadmap are part of category 1.

Detailed information on the evaluation process can be found in the Evaluation Guidelines.

Evaluation Panel for 2013 call

A total of 105 international experts participated in the 2013 call, including seven with extensive experience in evaluating European infrastructures.

Due to the cross-cutting nature of the applications and the current European and international outlook, a single panel of international experts was set, with a coordinator for each thematic area. The coordinators of the seven thematic areas worked together to ensure consistency of scores across areas, ensuring that proposals of similar scientific merit had equal opportunities to succeed.

The appointed coordinators are:

Thematic Area	Coordinator (Institution)
Social Sciences and Humanities	Gian Piero Zarri (Université Paris-Est, France)
Physical Sciences and Engineering	Ana Proykova (Faculty of Physics, University of Sofia, Bulgaria)
Environmental Sciences	John Sweeney (Irish Climate Analysis and Research Units - Department of Geography, NUIM, Ireland)
Biological and Medical Sciences	Ute Linz (Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany)
Materials and Analytical Facilities	John Wood (Imperial College London, UK)
Energy	Cesar Dopazo (Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain)
E-Infrastructures	Victor Castelo (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Spain)