Evaluation process for Program IDEAS is officially completed! The Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia will support 105 projects within this public call. In the next three years, 98 scientific research organization and 1064 researchers will implement their research within 105 projects and contribute to important scientific and social topics.
Program IDEAS is the largest and most complex program of the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia. Initially, 9096 researchers from 201 scientific research organizations applied with 917 project proposals. After the administrative check, 789 proposals proceeded to the first stage of evaluation where each project proposal was evaluated by three international peer reviewers according to the criteria of excellence, impact and implementation. Based on the program rules, according to the ranking after the first phase of evaluation, the highest ranked 223 project proposals proceeded to the second stage of evaluation.
The second stage of evaluation of project proposals was performed by the Program Evaluation Committee consisting of four Expert Panels, each with five international experts with internationally recognized professional careers and experience in evaluating international research projects: (1) Panel for Natural Sciences; (2) Panel for Engineering and Technological Sciences; (3) Panel for (Bio)Medical Sciences and (4) Panel for Social Sciences and Humanities. During the second stage of evaluation, the applicants presented their proposals in front of the Expert Panel, followed by discussion between the principal investigator and members of the corresponding panel.
After both stages of evaluation, the final lists for corresponding subprograms were established, according to the total score of both levels of evaluation and the following formula: the total average score from stage one is scaled down to 65% and added to the total average score awarded by the Expert Panel. The maximal total score for both evaluation stages is 100 points. Individual list was established for each subprogram based on the projects’ rankings and available budget.
The final ranking lists of 105 projects selected for funding include: 39 projects from Natural Sciences with a total budget of 11.82 million euros, 23 from Engineering and Technological Sciences with a total budget of 6.56 million euros, 19 from (Bio)Medical sciences with a total budget of 5.66 million euros and 24 from Social Sciences and Humanities with a total budget of 5.95 million euros.
The total budget of approved projects within this public call for Program IDEAS is 29,999,198.17 euros. The lowest approved project budget is 67,944 euros, while the highest approved project budget is 499,535 euros.
Leading Scientific and Research Organizations (SRO) of the project proposals are from Belgrade (84), Novi Sad (14), Nis (5), Cacak (1), Kragujevac (1), together with partner SROs from Belgrade, Bor, Cacak, Kragujevac, Nis, Novi Sad, Sombor, Subotica and Vranje.
Project teams from 98 scientific research organizations (56 faculties, 36 institutes, 3 innovation centers and 3 universities) participate in the approved projects.
According to our analyses, 57 women, and 48 men are principal investigators of the approved projects.
The final ranking lists of the projects approved for funding:
Final ranking list of projects in the field of Natural Sciences – LIST
Final ranking list of projects in the field of Engineering and Technological Sciences – LIST
Final ranking list of projects in the field of (Bio)Medical sciences – LIST
Final ranking list of projects in the field of Social Sciences and Humanities – LIST
The projects PIs received the official evaluation of their projects via email. In the coming period, Science Fund will inform the PIs, whose project proposals have been approved for funding, about the next steps and the preparation of documentation for signing the contract on financing the implementation of projects.
Funding is provided through the Budget of the Republic of Serbia, and the World Bank project – the Serbia Accelerating Innovation and Entrepreneurship Project (SAIGE).
We congratulate to all research teams and research organizations which projects are approved for funding. We thank all the participants for their effort and interest in the program IDEAS!