Call for EIT Food Innovation Evaluators

EIT Food Innovation invites Agrifood experts with significant experience in Innovation Management, Commercialisation, and Technology Transfer to apply to become evaluators and rapporteurs in connection with its Calls for proposals.

Detailed scope of work

For Innovation Call 2022 there will be 2 phases:

Stage 1: Expression of Interest

At the EOI stage, consortia will be asked to complete preliminary information about their proposal, including supporting business model and impact documentation.

After the EOI evaluation by expert evaluators, proposals will be invited to submit a full proposal based on their EOI evaluation score and available EIT funding for Business Plan 2022.

Stage 2: Full proposal

At the full proposal stage, consortia will be required to complete a more in-depth application, including a commercialization plan and additional supporting documentation.

Roles

Expert Evaluator

Expert evaluators will review all relevant background documentation (call-related documents and guidelines) and attend an online training with EIT Food Innovation. In both the EOI and full proposal phases evaluators will qualitatively assess their assigned proposals according to pre-defined evaluation criteria. They will give comments in English on each criterion (and each related question), which justify the given score and provide conclusions per criterion. It is critical that all comments and recommendations be written clearly, succinctly, and constructively. Expert evaluators are expected to be present and actively engaged in the Consensus and Panel Meetings.

Rapporteur

The Rapporteur plays an essential role in the evaluation of EIT Food Innovation proposals. They are independent arbiters who gather the opinions of experts, summarise, and synthesize individual evaluation reports into a single report for each assigned proposal. Like the expert evaluators, Rapporteurs will review all relevant background documentation (call-related documents and guidelines) and attend an online training with EIT Food Innovation. During the EOI Consensus Meeting, Rapporteurs will summarise the scores and comments of the evaluators and write professional reports that will be sent to each applicant as justification for their acceptance or rejection into the full proposal round. Similarly, Rapporteurs will prepare for the Panels by reading all documents, moderate the Panels Q&A session, take notes of the discussion and scoring and write up the final version of the Panel Report.

Knowledge, skills and experience

EIT Food Innovation is constituting a database of independent experts having a proven professional experience in the agri-food sector, in particular in the areas of innovation management, commercialisation of new products/services/processes and/or technology transfer.

Expert Evaluator

At least 10 years of professional experience in the agrifood sector

Strong background in innovation management and/or commercialisation of innovative products and services (or processes): specifically, experience with market and consumer needs in the agrifood sector, business plan and revenue forecasting, consumer analysis, intellectual property, product prototyping and route to market, and technology transfer

An understanding of economics, data analysis and financial accounting skills

Experience with criticality concept of technologies and innovation, TRL (technology readiness levels) and MRL (manufacturing readiness levels)

Participation in the evaluation of EU-funded programmes, Horizon 2020 (preferred)

Proven experience in at least one of the thematic areas/topics (listed below under Essential thematic areas/topics)

Fluency in English (written and spoken), outgoing personality and ability to work well with a team

Rapporteur

All Expert Evaluator qualifications

Previous participation in evaluations as Rapporteur (or 3 rounds as an evaluator)

Excellent writing skills (writing sample from previous Rapporteur work required)