Evaluation manuals for 2000 live on CORDIS
The 2000 version of the manual of proposal evaluation procedures for European Community funded projects, as adopted by the Commission on 14 July, are now available on CORDIS. The 'Evaluation Manual' provides guidelines for the evaluation of proposals, including the basic procedures that will be followed by all the programmes under the Fifth Framework Programme of the European Community and the European Atomic Energy Community. The manual describes the processes and the rules that apply to all programmes. Each individual programme also has its own annex (annexes H to N) referring to any special procedures and particular interpretations of the evaluation criteria, weightings of the criteria and threshold marks that might apply. Programme-specific annexes are regularly updated, and proposers are advised to consult the annex for the programme they are applying to before sending in a proposal. The new version has a number of important changes to the main procedures as well as small adjustments in the programme-specific annexes and some drafting amendments. The provisions of the amended manual apply to all calls for proposals published after 14 July 2000, and from 30 September 2000 will apply to all open calls that have already been published. The two most important changes that proposers should be aware of are as follows: - Proposals must be received at the address specified in the call for proposals on or before the deadline published in the call for proposals. Previously 10 working days were allowed for postal deliveries to arrive. - Copies of complete signed proposals will now be accepted. It is no longer necessary for the Commission to be in receipt of original signatures of the proposal partners and/or the proposal coordinator at the proposal stage. Other changes have been introduced to specific parts of certain programmes, including: - small clarifications of the procedures used for evaluating SME-specific measures (Annexes B and M); - a description of the procedure used for evaluating cluster projects under the Quality of Life programme (Annex H); - clarification of the definition of large scale proposals in the Competitive and Sustainable Growth programme (Annex J); - changes to weightings and marking thresholds for the energy sub-programme of the Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development programme (Annex K); - an amendment to the evaluation criteria for Japan Fellowships under the INCO programme (Annex L); - four new chapters covering innovation measures in areas which were not subject to calls in 1999 under the Promotion of Innovation and the Encouragement of Participation of SMEs programme (Annex M); - clarifications of the rules on eligibility and transfer between programmes for Marie Curie Fellowships under the Improving Human Potential programme (Annex N). Minor amendments have also been made to the drafting of the manual in order to clear up possible ambiguities in the original text. The manual is currently available in English, French and German. Other languages are expected to follow.