Being an EU evaluator offers huge rewards, says UK researcher
With the European Commission actively seeking more women evaluators to reach the 40 per cent target stipulated for the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6), CORDIS News spoke to an experienced evaluator about the 'challenge' of evaluating EU project proposals. Until two years ago, Sue Lewey ran a maritime research centre in Southampton, UK. Since then, Dr Lewey has worked part time at the alliance of maritime regional interests in Europe (amrie), based in Brussels, while running a private consultancy firm in the UK. She also continues to teach part time. Dr Lewey emphasised many times that being involved in evaluation is a two way process - while researchers are giving something back to the Community, they also reap the benefits themselves. It was the benefits of participating in the process that first got Dr Lewey involved. 'We [at the research centre] decided that we really needed to target a few people to go into evaluation to get a real feel for what the research projects were,' said Dr Lewey. 'We were satisfied that we had a lot to offer and had a lot of experience in research and reading research proposals. We had that to give, but also for ourselves, we wanted to gain the knowledge of how people were thinking - what things did get funding,' she added. Dr Lewey became 'reasonably successful' in writing research proposals and has taken part in six EU funded projects. She has participated in four evaluations over four years. Dr Lewey did not find the transition to evaluating EU proposals difficult, having participated in a similar process at national level and reviewed many PhD proposals. 'I think I'm very skilled at seeing when a research proposal is a complete bluff [...]. You get an eye for it, for knowing when something is very good and very sound, and when it's not so good.' On a practical level, evaluators are asked to be available for six days when they are invited to review proposals for a particular call, although the process usually lasts between three and five days. The first day consists of briefings on the call, what the Commission is looking for and any relevant regulations. After that, the task becomes less complicated by the hour: 'Reading the first one [proposal] takes and hours and hours, and then you suddenly get into the groove and you learn what you should be looking out for,' said Dr Lewey. In the evaluations in which Dr Lewey has taken part, she has been working very much in a male environment. But this, she says, is no surprise, as marine science and technology is dominated by men. She was unaware of the Commission's target of seeing women represent 40 per cent of evaluators, and regards it as a 'huge jump' which may not be immediately achievable: 'Women are underrepresented in science anyway, so where the 40 per cent has come from, I'm not really sure.' She is, however, fully supportive of the ambition behind the target and recognises that she is looking at the issue from one of the fields least penetrated by women scientists. Dr Lewey highlighted a general shortage in EU evaluators. One of the contributing factors is the reluctance of some universities to see their researchers disappear to Brussels for six days. The Southampton Institute was, however, very supportive: 'My university regarded it as a good thing to have FP5 evaluators in the university who could say 'no, that's not going to do it [to their own research proposals]''. She also believes that participating in projects and evaluating them is a 'chicken and egg situation'. People who evaluate proposals get more confidence in knowing what a good proposal looks like, while many consider that they should have undertaken some projects of their own before becoming evaluators. Overall, Dr Lewey has 'thoroughly enjoyed' the 'challenge' of evaluating EU project proposals, and feels she has profited from doing so. 'You meet some great people and I think I've learnt a lot, not just about the evaluation process, but I've learnt that different Member States have very different attitudes to research and approaches to research. I think it's very valuable to be able to see that and to see it reflected in proposals and discussions. It's a valuable learning curve for anybody in Europe,' she concluded.