Rannis - Research Fund announcement

I just criticized Rannis in the comments of the previous post but Rannis should be given credit when it does things correctly.  The announcement for applications to the Icelandic Research Funds contains this paragraph:

"Allar umsóknir og umsóknagögn skulu vera á ensku, svo að mögulegt sé að senda umsóknir í mat erlendis. Undanþágur eru veittar frá þessari meginreglu ef birtingar á viðkomandi fræðasviði einskorðast við íslenska útgáfu. Í þeim tilvikum skal umsækjandi fá leiðbeiningar hjá starfsmönnum Rannís. Allar umsóknir um öndvegisstyrki skulu vera á ensku, enda eru öndvegisverkefni ávallt metin af erlendum sérfræðingum."

To the best my knowledge this is the first time applications must be submitted in English and the first suggestion that Rannis is moving towards having foreign scholars review applications.  I think this is a tremendously important step.  Iceland has a small research community, which meant that applications were more often than not reviewed by non-specialists in the applicant's subfield.   Then there was, of course, the problem of everyone knowing the other two people that might review their application - meaning that the anonymity of the referee was pretty much guaranteed not to exist.  Great news!

Athugasemdir

[Luca Aceto, 22.8.2008 kl. 09:40]

Indriði,

I fully agree with you. This is a really important step that brings Iceland in line with what is done in all of the other Nordic countries and in the Netherlands, where, despite the substantial mass of local high-quality researchers both in academia and in industry, NWO makes extensive use of evaluators who do not work in the NL.

It will be interesting to see what the outcome will be and whether this policy is here to stay. 

Let's praise Rannis for taking this step at long last!

[Heiða María Sigurðardóttir, 26.8.2008 kl. 04:21]

I agree, this is a step in the right direction, not only for better peer-review but for connecting Icelandic research community with the 'outside world'.