Evaluation Process

 Selection process
The selection process follows the highest international standards in terms of fairness, transparency, impartiality, consistency, and independence in order to identify the best research project irrespective of gender, age, beliefs, nationality.

It is based on a two-step evaluation procedure performed by international experts. Scientific excellence is the sole evaluation criteria.

  • First stage
Each eligible application will be evaluated by several remote reviewers. These remote reviewers are non-Belgian high-level experts in the field of the call working outside Belgium.

Applicants have the opportunity to identify up to 3 experts worldwide they do not wish to see acting as evaluator of their application.

Each expert will sign a non-disclosure agreement and a non-conflict of interest form. Their evaluation will be anonymised.

The remote reviewers will evaluate the applications using the following evaluation criteria’s breakdown:

  • 40% Principal Investigator (CV and publications, leadership in the field, scientific achievements, and independence)
  • 40% Research Project (clarity of the project, preliminary results, soundness of the hypothesis, appropriateness of the approach, originality and focus of the project)
  • 20% Impact of the research
The applications will be evaluated using the following scores scale ranging from 0 to 5:

  • 0 = The proposal fails to address the criterion.
  • 1Poor. The criterion is inadequately addressed, or there are serious inherent weaknesses.
  • 2Fair. The proposal broadly addresses the criterion, but there are significant weaknesses.
  • 3Good. The proposal addresses the criterion well, but a number of shortcomings are present.
  • 4Very Good. The proposal addresses the criterion very well, but a small number of shortcomings are present.
  • 5Excellent. The proposal successfully addresses all relevant aspects of the criterion. Any shortcomings are minor.

  • Second stage
At this stage, the application files are composed of the submitted eligible application and their associated remote reviews.

Each application file will be evaluated by an independent Jury composed of 5 non-Belgian (1 Chair and 4 members) top experts in the field of the call working outside Belgium. The composition of the Jury will be disclosed at the announcement of the laureate.

Each Jury member will sign a non-disclosure agreement and a non-conflict of interest form.

The Jury will work in two phases.

The first Jury meeting will be held online. During that meeting, each application file will be introduced by a rapporteur and a co-rapporteur and will then be discussed by all members.

The Jury members will evaluate the applications using the same evaluation criteria breakdown and the scoring scale as the above-mentioned ones used by remote reviewers.

The objective of that meeting will be to identify a shortlist of candidates to be invited to make a presentation of their research project in Brussels at a later stage.

Applicants not reaching the interview stage will receive an Evaluation Summary Report. No redress procedure is foreseen.

The second Jury meeting will be held in Brussels (in principle). Applicants reaching the interview stage will be invited to the second Jury meeting on a date to be determined in February 2024 to make a presentation of their research.

Selected Applicants will be given 20 minutes to present their project to the Jury. The remaining time will be devoted to a question-and-answer session.

At the end of the presentations, the Jury members will make a final discussion round to identify a laureate.

All interviewed applicants will receive a consolidated Evaluation Summary Report. No redress procedure is foreseen.

The President of the Scientific Committee of the Latour Fund and the member of this Committee specialized in the Cancer will attend the Jury meetings as Observers. The role of the Observers is to ensure the respect of the procedure and the philosophy of the Award. They will not participate to the evaluation procedure and will have no vote in the decision making.

  • Final decision
The Award will be granted by the Board of Directors of the Baillet Latour Fund on basis of the recommendation of the Jury.

  • Scientific Committee
The selection process is designed and supervised by the Scientific Committee of the Baillet Latour Fund composed of high-level researchers active in the Belgian universities and is implemented by the F.R.S.-FNRS acting in a capacity of neutral administrative operator.

Please note that contact with any of the Scientific Committee members with a view to influence directly or indirectly the evaluation process is strictly forbidden and may lead to the disqualification of the application.


 Research integrity 
 
Research integrity is considered of utmost importance. All experts involved in the evaluation process (remote reviewers, Jury members, mid-term evaluators) will be notified and asked to pay specific attention to scientific misconduct such as fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, or misrepresentation of data. The on-site visit performed by the Scientific Committee representatives at the mid-term evaluation level will also be an opportunity to check on it. 

Funded researchers are expected to strictly comply to all institutional rules and regulations that apply in terms of research integrity.  
In case of integrity breach suspicion or allegation, the Scientific Committee will take the appropriate measures.  


 Open science 

The scientific outputs stemming from research supported by the Baillet Latour Biomedical Award should be valorised in order to maximise societal benefits.  

To this end the Baillet Latour Scientific Committee supports the publication in Open Access, with a preference for the deposit requirement of publications resulting from the funded project (Green Open access). 

The facilitation of the free access to these research outputs not only aims at the benefit of the scientific community but is also meant to increase both national and international visibility of the researchers. 


 Ethics

Research projects may require prior consideration of ethical problems that might arise or that are inherent to the submitted research project. The possible ethical problems may relate to the use and storage of private data, the handling of substances that may cause environmental or biodiversity damage and the research on animals or human beings (non-exhaustive list). 

Applicants to the Baillet Latour Biomedical Award who are concerned by ethical issues will be required to submit an ethical clearance provided by their local ethics committee. This process is aimed at ensuring that all the research and innovation activities under this Award comply with ethics principles and relevant national and international legislation. 


 Feedback to Applicants 
 
Applicants will receive max. 5 feedbacks during the evaluation of their application:  

  • Acknowledgment of the submission of their application  
  • Information on the outcome of the administrative eligibility check  
  • Information on the outcome of step 1 of the evaluation (identification of the shortlisted candidates who will be invited to an interview) 
  • Information on the outcome of step 2 of the evaluation (identification of the laureate)
  • Evaluation Summary Reports of their application 
No redress procedure is foreseen.

Schedule Of The Call

  • Opening: April 3rd 2023
  • Deadline: June 30th 2023
  • First Jury meeting: January 2024
  • Second Jury meeting: February 2024
  • Award ceremony: April 2024
  • Start: July 1st 2024

The call is closed