Working as an expert

Introduction

The Commission and, where appropriate, its funding bodies (e.g. its Agencies and Joint Undertakings) - hereafter "the Commission" - makes use of different types of independent experts to assist with the implementation, evaluation and monitoring of H2020 and other funding programmes. These include:

• Evaluators of proposals/prize applications
• Observers of an Evaluation
• Chairs and Vice-Chairs assisting with an Evaluation
• Ethics evaluators
• Monitors of Grant Agreements/Decisions
• Ethics monitors
• Members of Expert Groups and Individual Experts who assist with the implementation, evaluation or design of policies and/or programmes
• European Research Council (ERC) Scientific Council members
• Experts assisting with coaching activities within the SME instrument

As an expert you perform this work as an independent individual and do not represent a company or organisation.

The Commission recruits experts from a central database, where you can register at any time. Registration is open to experts of any nationality including those outside of the EU and Associated Countries.

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

Working as an expert, you may like to look through in short:

• Place of work: All or part of the evaluation and monitoring may be carried out at your home or place of work (remote evaluation), or at the Commission's offices in Brussels or Luxembourg, depending on the type of work to be done.
  Review sessions and audits, involving project representatives, may take place either at Commission offices or on the beneficiaries' premises.
• Conflicts of interest: The Commission will not appoint you as an expert for proposals or projects if you have a vested interest that could influence the way you evaluate them. For more detail please see the section on contracting and payments and the model contract for experts.
• Confidentiality: If you are going to be handling classified information, you will need security clearance before you can sign a contract.
• Remuneration: As an expert, you will receive €450 for each full day worked. However for remote evaluation and ethics review the Commission has developed a new simplified methodology to calculate the working days, please see details in the contracting & payment section. Your travel and subsistence costs will be refunded.
• Amount of work: Projects are usually monitored and evaluated in sessions lasting 15 days a year at most. The number of proposals you assess will largely depend on the area concerned.
  For the H2020 programme, an independent expert may work for up to 200 days in any four year period.
  This 200 day limit does not apply to ERC experts; days worked under an expert contract concluded with the ERC do, however, count towards the 200 day limit for contracts issued by the European Commission and its other funding bodies.

In depth - working as an expert:

• How you can become an expert: start with registering as an expert
• You will be offered to sign a contract, if you are selected as an expert. To find out more visit the contracting & Payment page.
• Find out more what steps experts follow during proposals evaluation or project monitoring under experts roles and tasks.