Given the significant share of targeted public aid in overall research funding, success in grant competitions has a significant impact on individual career paths. It is often a prerequisite for participation in research and publication activities. Moreover, it also tends to be considered as one of the important indicators of scientific excellence. It is therefore crucial to set up the evaluation process in a way that ensures a fair evaluation which is not affected by prejudices and will lead to the identification of the best projects. Our effort is both to eliminate possible implicit prejudices related to gender, as well as to support a balanced representation of women and men among project evaluators.
We strive to accommodate those female and male members of the team who have had a professional break, for example due to parental leave, long-term illness or caring for a close person. It is generally not necessary to include a complete professional CV in the project proposal. We require team members to select a maximum of 5 most relevant projects and publications, without specifying how old these should be. In this way, we try to mitigate the impact of career breaks on further paths of researchers.