Expert registration

Registering as an expert

To work for the Commission assessing proposals or monitoring projects or research and innovation programmes as an independent expert in your field, you will first need to register.

To register, go to the Experts' page on the Funding & Tenders Portal. To access the registration forms, you'll need an EU Login account, which you can set-up on the same website if you don't yet have one.

Once you've done this, you can log in to your account any time and view, update or complete your profile in the My Expert Area.

Click on the "Register as an expert" button. To create your profile, you'll need to specify:

• which programmes you're interested in
• personal details, knowledge of languages, education and training
• area of expertise
• professional experience (employment, past involvement in EU research programmes, publications or other achievements...)

To find out exactly what type of knowledge and skills the Commission is looking for, see the H2020 call for experts, published in the EU Official Journal on 22 November 2013.

Privacy

For research funding bodies with a public service mission based in the EU and associated countries and other structures implementing EU research activities - e.g. Joint Technology Initiatives - you will also need to give permission for your data to be viewed.

Once you have completed all sections and your profile status appears as 'valid', you become eligible for selection for a Horizon 2020 assignment. However, registration as an expert in the database does not guarantee automatic selection. The Commission selects experts according to their needs of expertise.

If you are selected, you will be contacted directly by the Commission services.

European Research Council

You do not need to register here to work as an independent expert for the European Research Council (ERC). The ERC selects experts to conduct peer reviews on the basis of suggestions put forward by its Scientific Council.

Recommendations - not necessary

On 22 November 2013, the Commission also published a call for organisations to recommend experts for the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.

However, you do not need a recommendation to register in the database of experts.

Selection of experts

The Commission selects experts for Horizon 2020 assignments from the database of experts who registered in My Expert Area. (It may be possible to choose an expert from outside the database, provided the selection is transparent. In such cases, the expert will be invited to sign-up to the database.)

For each assignment (e.g. evaluation of a call or monitoring of projects), a 'pool' of experts is drawn-up on the basis of the following criteria:

• Experts have a high level of skills, experience and knowledge in the relevant area, including project management, innovation, exploitation, dissemination and communication. Where relevant, inter-disciplinary experts, those with expertise in appropriate disciplines of the social sciences and humanities, as well as gender specialists are included in the 'pool'.
• If this condition is satisfied, the 'pool' should have a balanced composition in terms of various skills, experience and knowledge, geographical diversity and gender. With respect to gender, the policy of the Commission is one of equal opportunities for women and men and, in this context, the Commission has set itself a target of 40% of the under-represented sex in evaluation panels and expert groups.
• A private-public sector balance is assured, if appropriate.
• Experts are regularly rotated by ensuring that individual experts do not work more than 200 days for Horizon 2020 activities. With respect to evaluations in particular, for each call, at least 25% of experts included in the 'pool' should be newcomers, i.e. not have evaluated for the call in the previous 3 years.
  Please note that the threshold of 200 days is calculated on the basis of the number of days paid to an expert for any activities (evaluation, monitoring or expert assisting/advising the EC for the implementation/design/evaluation of the EU policies/programmes) under Horizon 2020. Note that monitoring activities include also the monitoring of FP7 or CIP projects for which the experts receive a H2020 contract.

The Commission also takes into account experts' availability for the planned task and any known conflicts of interest.

The 'pool' of experts is drawn-up well in advance of the assignment in question and the final list of experts selected from the initial 'pool' is made once the precise needs in terms of expertise are known, e.g. in the case of an evaluation, after the call deadline once the proposals are known. Consequently, extra experts are generally included in the 'pool' to ensure the expertise required is covered and to foresee a sufficient reserve, should some no longer be in a position to carry out the task.

Business innovation coaches

Business innovation coaches support SMEs funded via the SME instrument. An expression of interest for experts willing to become Business Innovation Coach for the SME instrument is available on the EASME website. Candidate coaches will also be asked to provide more detailed information on their competence and experience here.