All CORBEL applications will go through two stages of review: first a scientific review conducted by two external reviewers with a broad and interdisciplinary scientific background, then a technical review conducted by the service providers requested by the applicant.

Only projects with positive technical evaluation for access to several service providers from at least two different research infrastructures will be selected.

Please note: contacting the requested service providers to discuss the project idea prior to application submission is a requirement, but does not result in automatic acceptance of the project by the service providers during the technical review.

During the reviews, the application will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

1) Scientific review

• Significance/importance of the project in the context of international research and standards in the field
• Scientific quality of the research and study concept
• Benefit for applicant in terms of accessing multiple research infrastructures
• Impact of project on field of science, economy and society

2) Technical review

• Feasibility of the project to be successfully conducted together with the service providing institute and in the remaining funding period of CORBEL (until May 2020)
• Availability of required technologies and expertise at the CORBEL service provider
• Availability of possible required supporting laboratory or animal facilities for the project
• Maturity of the project: applicants should be ready to start the work within 3 months after project acceptance to ensure completion of service provision by the end of CORBEL
• Technical ability of the applicant: ability to conduct fully or partially the planned experiments, ability to provide the prerequisites to start the proposed work with the service provider or possibility to acquire the required skills in the time frame of the proposed project
• Necessity to conduct the research with the requested CORBEL partner (or could the applicant conduct the work with another CORBEL partner that would be closer to his/her home laboratory, or that would be more qualified for the specified application)

Note: The standardized guidelines for scientific reviewers, service providers and moderators can be downloaded here.

The review process will be moderated by the Open Call project managers, and the application will remain strictly confidential throughout the review process. Applicants will be informed about the decision within 6 – 8 weeks after the end of the submission period, during which the project was submitted. Submission periods last two months, starting on the first and ending on the last day of the respective months.