On November 22, the call has been launched in order to establish a database of prospective evaluators for Horizon 2020 proposals. Experts, as peer reviewers, assist in the (i) evaluation of research and innovation proposals (ii) review of research and innovation projects, (iii) monitoring the progress, outcome and impact of research and innovation programmes as well as giving advice on the shape of future research and innovation activities. You have a chance of being selected as an expert if you (i) have a high level expertise in research or innovation in any scientific and technological field, including managerial aspects, (ii) have at least a university degree, and (iii) can be available for occasional, short-term assignments.

Researchers are encouraged to submit an expression of interest as, if selected to evaluate a specific Horizon 2020 call, this can be a useful way to see first-hand what makes a successful proposal and how the evaluation process works. This is especially interesting for young scientists who are planning to get involved with EU funding. It might take short time to several years until you are picked by the Commission.

Experts wishing to take part can access the service from the Participant Portal: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/page/experts. From here, you create an ECAS (European Commission’s secure Authentication Service) account, if you don’t already have one. If you have received your password, go back to the Expert area in the Participant Portal, log-in with your ECAS user name or email address and password. Then click on ‘Register or update your profile’, this leads you to the introductory page of the expert registration service.

Experts previously registered for FP7 need to declare their interest in working as an expert for the Horizon 2020 programme as well as revising the ‘area of expertise’ section.