Guidelines for Proposal Evaluation of ELLIS Units
Each proposal will first be checked for eligibility. Proposals that pass the eligibility check will be reviewed by at least 3 international reviewers (ELLIS Fellows). The Units selection committee, formed from members of the Units committee as well as additional Unit directors or Fellows/Scholars, will consolidate the reviews and make a recommendation. To avoid conflicts of interest, each proposal will be handled by reviewers/committee members from countries different than the country of the Unit being evaluated. The final decision is made by the ELLIS Board.
In summary, the review process is composed of four parts:
Eligibility check
Evaluation of the 8-page proposal by international reviewers
Discussion and recommendation by the Unit Selection Committee
Final decision by the ELLIS Board
The guidelines for the eligibility check and for reviewers are detailed below.
Guidelines for the eligibility check
If it's a proposal for a Unit in a country with existing Units, is the proposal sufficiently justified? Does it clearly explain that expanding an existing Unit is not possible?
Is the Unit Director an ELLIS Fellow/Scholar?
Does the proposal have a sufficient critical mass of at least 5 PIs and their teams? There should be at least two other proposed Fellows/Scholars.
Does the support letter contain all required sections as in the template?
Budget: Does the proposed budget contain at least 500k euro/year for the salaries of permanent researchers and at least 1 Mio euro/year for additional costs?
Commitment to ELLIS. Does the proposal include a clear commitment to ELLIS as described in criteria “7. Contribution towards running ELLIS Society” and which is reflected in the proposed Unit budget?
Guidelines for reviewers
1 Alignment with ELLIS
- Does the proposed Unit align with the mission and vision of ELLIS? Does the Unit serve as a stepping stone toward the long-term goal of establishing a set of world-class ELLIS Institutes (https://ellis.eu/sites)?
- What is the unique added value of the proposed ELLIS Unit for ELLIS as well as the existing local AI ecosystem? For example, does the proposal cover a new country or region that has a sufficient critical mass of top talent (see excellence of the team below) and is not yet covered by ELLIS?
- Does the Unit cover the relevant top places in the given city/region/country?
2 Organisational structure
- Are the hosting institutions representing the top places in the region covered by the Unit?
- Assuming the proposed Unit director passes the evaluation or is already a Fellow/Scholar, how well-suited is the director of the proposed Unit to ensure its sustainability and success? For example, are they involved in the Unit with a sufficient time commitment (e.g., are they at the hosting organization at least 50% of their time)?
- Does the Unit have an appropriate governance structure representing researchers from the different institutions involved in the Unit?
- Does the proposal have a sufficient critical mass of at least 5 PIs and their teams? Including PhD students/post-docs/engineers, the Unit with 5 PIs may be reaching 25-50 people at the time of application.
- Are all gender groups among Fellows/Scholars below 85%?
- Does the Unit commit to joint PR branding with ELLIS and has an administrative coordinator and a PR person?
3 The excellence of the team
- Please assess the overall quality and critical mass of the team.
- Are all nominated researchers at least ELLIS Members?
- Does the proposal have at least three researchers who are on the Fellow/Scholar level (including the Unit director)? Guidelines for evaluating Fellows/Scholars are here.
- Are the remaining researchers on the level of PIs in the existing ELLIS Units? The key criteria include regular publications in top-tier venues in their field of research, prestigious awards, honors and grants, invitations to serve as AC/PC for top-tier conferences, membership in editorial boards of top-tier journals, significant innovation activities (patents, start-ups, tech. transfers, consulting for the industry), other significant societal impact activities (e.g. institutional/government initiatives, boards, strategies).
4 Societal and economic impact
- Does the Unit have links or collaborations with local industry?
- Does the Unit have any links or provide some form of input to the local government / EU? Examples include: organization/participation in local / EU outreach events; providing support/input to local / EU policy-making; and memberships in local/EU advisory committees/boards.
- Does the Unit have a program for supporting early start-ups and spinning off companies? Does the Unit provide flexibility to its researchers to get involved with startup companies?
5 Connection to ELLIS
- Please assess the links of the Unit with the rest of the network. For a regular Unit, it is expected that the proposed director or researchers in the Unit have 5+ existing links with existing ELLIS Fellows/Scholars and Members. These links can include joint publications, projects, ELLIS PhD students, collaborations, etc.
- ELLIS Associate Units do not have to have already established links with other Units, but should have a feasible plan mentioning several (3+) concrete people. ELLIS Associate Units need to have an existing supporting Unit
6 Budget
- Does the budget meet the required criteria, i.e. that (i) the salaries of permanent researchers (ELLIS Fellows / Scholars / Members) constitute at least 500k euro/year; (ii) the budget for the rest of the team and other mechanisms (travel, etc.) is at least 1 million euro/year ?
- Does the Unit plan to contribute 20k EUR / year Unit membership fee or contribute in-kind?
7 Contribution towards running ELLIS Society
- Does the Unit plan to contribute 20kE / year Unit membership fee or otherwise contribute towards ELLIS as described in the Unit contributions document?
For questions, please email sites@ellis.eu.
