Evaluation Process

The selection process is designed to ensure fairness, transparency, impartiality, consistency, and independence in order to identify the best research project irrespective of gender, age, beliefs, nationality, political or sexual orientation of the PI.

It is based on a three-step evaluation procedure performed by international experts.

Each eligible application will be evaluated (scored and commented) by several remote experts (high-level experts in the remit 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.
 
All remote experts involved in the evaluation process will have to sign a non-disclosure agreement, a data protection agreement and a non-conflict of interest form. Panel members will be informed of the remote experts’ identity.

The first Panel meeting will be held online in February 2026.
 
All applications will be collegially evaluated by a high-level international Panel composed of 5 top experts in the scope of the call working outside Belgium (1 Chair and 4 members). Each application will be introduced by a rapporteur and a co-rapporteur and will then be discussed by all members with an objective to identify a shortlist of top candidates to be invited to make a presentation of their research project. Each application file is composed of the application form, support material and associated remote evaluations.
 
All Panel members will have to sign a non-disclosure agreement, a data protection agreement and a non-conflict of interest form.
 
The composition of the Panel will be disclosed at the announcement of the laureate.

The second Panel meeting will be held online in March 2026.
 
Selected applicants will have 20 minutes to present their research project to the Panel members and 10 minutes max. will then be devoted to a Q&A session. At the end of the presentations, the Panel members will hold a final discussion round to identify a laureate.
 
A representative of the Baillet Latour Fund will attend the 2 Panel meetings as an Observer. The role of the Observer is to ensure respect for the procedure and the philosophy of the Award. He/she will not interfere in the evaluation process and will have no vote in the decision making.
 
At the end of the selection process, feedback is provided to applicants under the form of individual Evaluation Summary Reports (ESRs) drafted by the rapporteurs and validated by the Chair of the Selection Panel. No redress procedure is foreseen.

 Evaluation Criteria
 
Each application must be evaluated against the following three evaluation criteria:

 
 
 Scoring scale
 
Each evaluation criterion should be scored using the following scale:

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

 Research integrity 
 
Research integrity is of utmost importance. All experts involved in the evaluation process (remote experts, Panel members, mid-term evaluators) will be asked to pay specific attention to scientific misconduct such as fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, or misrepresentation of data. The evaluation of the mid-term report 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 Baillet Latour Fund will take the appropriate measures.  

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 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. 

Research projects may require 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). 

It will be the responsibility of the laureate of the Award to submit an ethical clearance provided by his/her local ethics committee to the “Baillet Latour Fund” (should the project raise any ethical issues).

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

No redress procedure is foreseen.