Statement on the Evaluation of R&D Units 2013

Following news that have been made public recently and also some comments and opinions received by other means, the FCT reaffirms the following:

- Its full confidence in the robustness of the assessment exercise of the Research Units currently underway. The evaluation of research units carried out by FCT in collaboration with the European Science Foundation (ESF) corresponds to a regular evaluation exercise, provided by law and that is taking place as planned and disclosedThe evaluation of research units, both from the point of view of procedures and from the point of view of the announced timetable;

The ESF reiterates, on its website, the robustness and high standards of the evaluation exercise.

- The evaluation exercise is carried out with full transparency, rigor, impartiality, and in compliance with the best international practices that FCT recommends and that ESF has extensively described and applied in numerous evaluation exercises;

- The regulation of Call was subject to public consultation and was widely discussed, incorporating proposals from organizations and members of the scientific community. The evaluation and application guidelines are public since the beginning of Call and explain, in a detailed way, the evaluation criteria that were scrupulously followed;

- The FCT strongly rejects any interference, direct or indirect, in the evaluation process that was closely monitored by the ESF;

- The members of the evaluation panels were selected by ESF according to the most stringent criteria of scientific merit and proven experience in similar evaluation exercises;

- On this date, the Prior Hearing period will take place for the units that will not pass on to the second phase of evaluation, where unit coordinators may contest any errors or misconceptions that may remain in the consensus reports transmitted by the evaluation panels;

- FCT is closely following the 2013 Unit Evaluation exercise, having reaffirmed its commitment to collaborate with the units that were not proposed to move on to the second phase of evaluation, in order to identify the most appropriate solutions to define their future strategy.