Evaluation Process

The selection process follows the highest international standards in terms of fairness, transparency, impartiality, consistency, and independence in order to identify the best research project irrespective of gender, age, beliefs, nationality.

It is based on a two-step evaluation procedure performed by international experts. Scientific excellence is the sole evaluation criteria.

Each eligible application will be evaluated by several remote experts. These remote experts are non-Belgian high-level experts in the field of the call working outside Belgium.

Applicants have the opportunity to identify up to 3 experts worldwide they do not wish to see acting as evaluator of their application.

Each expert will sign a non-disclosure agreement, a data protection agreement and a non-conflict of interest form. Their evaluation will be anonymised.

The remote experts will evaluate the applications using the following evaluation criteria’s breakdown:

The applications will be evaluated using the following scores scale ranging from 0 to 5:

At this stage, the application files are composed of the submitted eligible application and their associated remote reviews.
 
Each application file will be evaluated by an independent Panel composed of 5 non-Belgian (1 Chair and 4 members) top experts in the field of the call working outside Belgium. The composition of the Panel will be disclosed at the announcement of the laureate.
 
Each Panel member will sign a non-disclosure agreement, a data protection agreement and a non-conflict of interest form.
 
The Panel will work in two phases.
 
The first Panel meeting will be held online in February 2025. During that meeting, each application file will be introduced by a rapporteur and a co-rapporteur and will then be discussed by all members.
 
The Panel members will evaluate the applications using the same evaluation criteria breakdown and the scoring scale as the above-mentioned ones used by remote experts.
 
The objective of that meeting will be to identify a shortlist of candidates to be invited to make a presentation of their research project at a later stage.
 
Applicants not reaching the interview stage will receive an Evaluation Summary Report. No redress procedure is foreseen.
 
The second Jury meeting will be held online in March 2025. Applicants reaching the interview stage will be invited to the second Panel meeting to make a presentation of their research.
 
Selected Applicants will be given 20 minutes to present their project to the Panel. The remaining time will be devoted to a question-and-answer session.
 
At the end of the presentations, the Panel members will make a final discussion round to identify a laureate.
 
All interviewed applicants will receive a consolidated Evaluation Summary Report. No redress procedure is foreseen.

A representative of the Baillet Latour Fund will attend the Panel meetings as Observer. The role of the Observer is to ensure the respect of the procedure and the philosophy of the Award. He/she will not participate to the evaluation procedure and will have no vote in the decision making.

The Award will be granted by the Board of Directors of the Baillet Latour Fund on basis of the recommendation of the Panel.

 Research integrity 
 
Research integrity is considered of utmost importance. All experts involved in the evaluation process (remote experts, Panel members, mid-term evaluators) will be notified and asked to pay specific attention to scientific misconduct such as fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, or misrepresentation of data. The mid-term evaluation level will also be an opportunity to check on it. 

Funded researchers are expected to strictly comply to all institutional rules and regulations that apply in terms of research integrity.  
In case of integrity breach suspicion or allegation, the Baillet Latour Fund will take the appropriate measures.  

The scientific outputs stemming from research supported by the Baillet Latour Biomedical Award should be valorised in order to maximise societal benefits.  

To this end the Baillet Latour supports the publication in Open Access, with a preference for the deposit requirement of publications resulting from the funded project (Green Open access). 

The facilitation of the free access to these research outputs not only aims at the benefit of the scientific community but is also meant to increase both national and international visibility of the researchers. 

Research projects may require prior consideration of ethical problems that might arise or that are inherent to the submitted research project. The possible ethical problems may relate to the use and storage of private data, the handling of substances that may cause environmental or biodiversity damage and the research on animals or human beings (non-exhaustive list). 

Applicants to the Baillet Latour Biomedical Award who are concerned by ethical issues will be required to submit an ethical clearance provided by their local ethics committee. This process is aimed at ensuring that all the research and innovation activities under this Award comply with ethics principles and relevant national and international legislation. 

 
Applicants will receive max. 5 feedbacks during the evaluation of their application:  

No redress procedure is foreseen.