General Information About the Russian Foundation for Basic Research

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GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE RUSSIAN FOUNDATION FOR BASIC RESEARCH

History

Main Objectives of the Foundation

Areas and Working Principles

RFBR Competitive Selection Contests

Expert Examination

Budget of the Foundation

EXPERT EXAMINATION

Expert examination is the most important element in the activity of the RFBR. All decisions to support projects are made by RFBR only after analysis of the results of expert examination. The purpose of expert examination is to assess the science quality of an application.
Members of expert panels for specific branches of sciences and experts of the Foundation review research projects, assess the possibility of their implementation and provide recommendations on the expediency of funding a specific project and on the amount of such funding. Over 2,000 leading scientists have been involved in expert evaluation, and they come from many ministries, departments and regions of the country. Each application submitted to the Russian Fund for Basic Research goes through a multistage expert examination. Initially, an application is reviewed by two or three experts working independently and anonymously. The results of such merit reviews and the respective applications themselves are then discussed by expert panel sections consisting of 8-10 scientists. Should there be any doubt in the adequacy of the expert evaluation of any application, the section may designate such application for a repeated examination by different experts but it may not cancel the results of the first examination. Then, applications and respective independent reviews prepared by independent experts and Expert Panel sections are reviewed by the Expert Panel (consisting of 30-40 members) itself. Therefore it can be said that about 50 science experts are involved in the independent expert evaluation and collegiate discussions of each application. The structure of expert evaluation organization in RFBR is presented in Figure 1.
Fig. 1. RFBR Expert System
As an expert of RFBR may be recognized any scholar of authority who should necessarily have the highest academic credentials (the academic degree of doctor or candidate of sciences) and who should be actively involved in carrying out research. The member composition of the experts of the Foundation is approved by the Bureau of the Foundation on suggestion of the expert panels.
An expert panel is created for each area of knowledge, and within each expert panel different sections are formed to reflect systematic divisions in the given area of knowledge.
No expert panel may include among its members heads of research institutions conducting basic research, their deputies as well as any scientists who have never worked before as experts of the Foundation.
To the competence of each expert panel will be relegated the following questions

1. compilation of a classifier in its area of knowledge
2. development of suggestions on the expert evaluation mechanism
3. distribution of funding quotas among different science branches within a general quota for the given area of knowledge approved by the Foundation Board
4. organization of a multi-stage expert evaluation process for applications and reports, adoption of recommendations on support and funding amounts

Decisions of each expert panel and its sections are adopted by a majority (not less than 50%) of votes of the members attending the meeting provided that at least 50% of all of its members are in attendance.
Memberships of expert panels will be approved by the Board of the Foundation to act for three years. Expert panel members, experts and all officials of the Foundation are required to maintain the confidentiality of information concerning the contents of projects, composition of expert panels and identities of experts, the interim and final results of expert evaluation.
Annual research and financial reports with respect to ongoing projects and final reports with respect to completed projects also go through expert evaluation, the results of which are taken into account when making decisions on whether to continue specific project funding and during the merit review of subsequent applications submitted by the same authors.
The total volume of expert evaluation work undertaken by the Foundation each year may be estimated to be at 65,000-70,000 individual evaluations which without any doubt stresses the place of the Foundation in the country as the largest expert evaluation organization in the domain of science.

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