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About DIH-HERO

The major objective of the DIH-HERO project (Digital Innovation Hubs in Healthcare Robotics) is to establish a broad-based pan-European network of Digital Innovation Hubs specialized in Healthcare Robotics. The DIH-HERO network provides services which connect business and healthcare stakeholders in developing innovative products and services for the healthcare market. It establishes channels between healthcare and technology providers that reduce barriers to adoption and create strong mutual understanding between robotics technology innovators and healthcare professionals. In order to ensure that robotics innovation in healthcare is accelerated, that SMEs can develop global reach and that the advantages of robotics-based healthcare can be propagated across Europe, DIH-HERO also offers funding for performing a Technology Demonstrator, through forming a cross-border project consortium, consisting of at least to partners.

The DIH-HERO Technology Demonstrator Call

The major aim of the Technology Demonstrator Call is to stimulate cross-border collaboration among pan-European companies (SME’s and slightly larger companies), which are working in the area of Healthcare Robotics. By demonstrating the feasibility of new, innovative and enhanced robotic solutions in healthcare application domains the development of Healthcare robotics is accelerated. Furthermore, the DIH-HERO Technology Demonstrators are meant to broaden the uptake of robotics solutions in healthcare and to increase future investments in robotics in healthcare.

Overview: Becoming an independent evaluator

Working as an external evaluator within the framework of the Technology Demonstrator Call 2019 under the DIH-HERO innovation action:

  • Location: The individual evaluation(s) may be carried out remotely, (e.g. at home). For the consensus meeting you will be invited to travel to the coordinator’s premises, in order to discuss the final ranking together with all external evaluators. 
  • Conflicts of interest: The project coordinator 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. You will have to declare that there are no conflicts of interest with the particular proposals that have been assigned to you as evaluator.
  • Confidentiality: Due to the fact that you are going to be handling classified information, you will need to sign a confidentiality declaration with your contract.
  • Remuneration: For remote evaluation, the coordinator will follow the new simplified methodology that has been developed by the European Commission to calculate the working days, please see the details given in the contracting & payment section for further information. Your travel and subsistence costs will be refunded according to the guidelines set by the European Commission.
  • Amount of work: Projects are usually evaluated in sessions adding up to 10 -15 working days a year at most. The max. number of proposals that will have to be assessed by a single evaluator per call will be 8.

Tasks and Responsibilities of an Independent Evaluator within DIH-HERO

As an independent evaluator for DIH-HERO, you evaluate proposals submitted in response to a given call (DIH-HERO Technology Demonstrator Call and DIH-HERO Technology Transfer Experiment Call). 

  • You are responsible for carrying out the evaluation of the proposals yourself. You are not allowed to delegate the work to another person!
  • You must submit the individual evaluation reports within a given deadline. This is part of your contractual obligations! The allowance/expenses you claim may be reduced or rejected otherwise.
  • Significant funding decisions will be made on the basis of your assessment

Guiding principles for evaluating proposals within Horizon 2020

Independence: You are evaluating in a personal capacity. You represent neither your employer, nor your country! 

Impartiality: You must treat all proposals equally and evaluate them impartially on their merits, irrespective of their origin or the identity of the applicants

Objectivity: You evaluate each proposal as submitted; meaning on its own merit, not its potential if certain changes were to be made

Accuracy: You make your judgment against the official evaluation criteria and the call or topic the proposal addresses, and nothing else

Consistency: You apply the same standard of judgment to all proposals

Evaluator registration

You can apply for becoming an independent evaluator for the DIH-HERO calls through filling in and submitting the online application form for evaluators. The evaluators will be selected taking the following criteria into account:

  • a high level of skill, experience and knowledge in the relevant areas of healthcare, 

provided the above condition can be satisfied, DIH-HERO will strive for a balance in terms of:

  • geographical diversity
  •  gender 
  • where appropriate, the private and public sectors, and – an appropriate turnover from year to year. All proposals will be examined by three experts.

Contract signing and remuneration

If you are selected as an evaluator, you will be offered a contract. This contract (including its annexes) defines all the rights, obligations, terms and conditions applicable to you. It is not an employment contract or agreement.

Your contract will be based on the model contract for experts of the European Commission, but will be adapted in according with the requirements and purposes of the DIH-HERO project.  

Code of conduct

You need to adhere to the code of conduct, which includes rules on the performance of the contract and obligations of impartiality and confidentiality.

Conflicts of interest

You, as an external evaluator for the DIH-HERO project, must not have any conflicts of interest on the activity that you are being asked to undertake and, in particular, any TD project proposal you are called upon to assess.

You should be independent, impartial and objective, and behave professionally at all times.

The contract you sign before starting work includes a declaration that you accept and will abide by the Code of Conduct. This means, amongst other things, that

  • you declare that no conflict of interest exists and
  • you will inform the Coordinator if you should discover that any such conflict arises in the course of your duties.
  • If, at the time that you sign the contract, you are already aware that you may be in a position of conflict of interest, you are required to declare this.

Consequences of a Conflict of Interest

If you knowingly conceal a conflict of interest and this is discovered during your activities as an external evaluator, you will be dismissed with immediate effect, your contract will be terminated and the measures laid down in the contract will be taken.

Example: Submitting proposals for funding while working as an expert

If you submit a research proposal for evaluation, you are not necessarily excluded from acting as an expert evaluator, provided that you declare it and that there is no conflict of interest. In this case, you will not be assigned to evaluate your own proposal or any proposals which may be competing with it.

Confidentiality

Due to the fact that your role involves handling classified information, you will need to sign confidentiality declaration with your contract.

As an evaluator you must: 

  • Not discuss evaluation matters, such as the content of proposals, evaluation results or opinions of fellow experts, with anyone, including:
  • Other experts or any other person (e.g. colleagues, students…) not directly involved in the evaluation of the proposal
  • The sole exception: your fellow experts who are evaluating the same proposal in a consensus group or Panel review
  • Not contact partners in the TD project consortium, sub-contractors or any third parties 
  • Not disclose names of your fellow experts.
  • Maintain confidentiality of documents, paper or electronic, at all times and wherever you do your evaluation work (on-site or remotely)
  • Please take nothing away from the evaluation building (be it paper or electronic)
  • Return, destroy or delete all confidential documents, paper or electronic, upon completing your work, as instructed

You will be asked to sign an informed consent for data processing and a declaration of honor. The coordinator will also share your name and field of expertise with the Coordination Support Action of DIH-HERO (RODIN) and the other five Innovation Actions which are namely: RIMA, TRINITY, DIH2, and ARGRIFOOD, however we do not disclose who has worked on which proposals. Furthermore, you will be asked to sign a declaration that there is no conflict of interest for each particular proposal you are evaluating.

Payment

Requests for payment

Once your work is completed, you will receive an e-mail inviting you to submit your request for payment. 

Travel expenses

When you claim your travel expenses for traveling to the consensus meeting, you should submit scanned copies of all the original supporting documents as requested. You must keep records and other supporting documents for at least two years after the payment is made to show that you have complied, in full, with the terms of your contract.
Deadline: You should submit your request for payment within 30 days of receiving the email invitation.

Amount of the payment

For remote work carried out by evaluators, any work that you are specifically asked to carry out remotely will be paid in accordance with your contract and the methodology for expert fees for remote evaluation developed by the European Commission. The number of working days that you will be paid for is based on the actual task assigned and worked; this may be less than the maximum number of working days. Please note that you will not receive payment for tasks that are not covered by the contract (or an amendment to it) and which are not specifically assigned to you. The reimbursement of travel expenses for traveling to the consensus meeting and payments of accommodation allowance and daily allowance are made on request and will be based on the European Commission Rules on the reimbursement of expenses of experts (see the annex of Commission Decision C(2007)5858).

Accommodation and daily allowances

Based on the European Commission Rules on the reimbursement of travel expenses of experts for traveling to the DIH-HERO consensus meeting, the Coordinator also pays accommodation allowances and daily allowances to experts who are entitled to receive them:

  • accommodation allowance is €100 per night
  • daily allowance is a flat rate of €92 to cover all expenditure at the place where the meeting/work is held, including meals and local transport (bus, tram, metro, taxi, parking, motorway tolls, etc.) as well as travel and accident insurance
  • experts who live less than 100km from the meeting venue receive a daily allowance of €46, and are not eligible to receive the accommodation allowance
  • allowances may be increased for disabled experts, see below.

Taxation issues

You are obliged to ensure compliance with your national legislation on taxes and social security law – this is your responsibility. Any payment you receive is not exempted from national taxes. If you are considered to supply a taxable service under national tax law and you are registered for VAT as a natural person in an EU Member State, you can benefit from a VAT exemption certificate for payments made under your contract. 

Disabled experts

If an expert’s disability requires that a person accompany him/her when travelling, then the travel expenses of that person will also be refunded upon prior request. The Coordinator will also pay accommodation allowances and daily allowances to the accompanying person.

Keeping supporting documents

You must keep records or other supporting documents for two years from the date of the last payment made under the contract that the work relates to, when you work as an expert. The Coordinator may ask you to provide these documents as evidence that the contract was carried out correctly and that any expenses claimed are genuine.

Please note that the information given on this page may be used for information purposes only. The information given on this page may be subject to changes. 

BECOME AN EXTERNAL EVALUATOR FOR THE DIH-HERO TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATOR

Adapted from: https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/docs/h2020-funding-guide/experts/experts_en.htm