site.btaPublic Procurement for Establishment of Centres of Excellence Called Off

Public Procurement for Establishment of  Centres of Excellence Called Off

Sofia, February 21 (BTA) - The management of the EU-supported Operational Programme Science and Education for Smart Growth has called off a public procurement procedure for selection of an appraiser of projects for establishment of centres of excellence and centres of competence, Deputy Education Minister Vanya Stoyneva told a news conference Tuesday.

She said that none of the three consortia participating in the final stage of the procedure presented the full required information about the expertise of the proposed teams of appraisers.

The appraisers were required to have at least three scientific publications with at least five mentions in the top ten journals in their area of competence in the past five years.

The Deputy Minister explained that the incomplete information does not allow assessing the professional and scientific competence of the nominated experts. To ensure an independent assessment of the scientific projects, the competent government unit will announce a new procedure for recruiting appraisers of scientific projects. This new procedure will be centralized and will be oriented towards experts from across the world.

The requirements will be upped for the appraisers: they will be expected to have university diploma and doctoral degree, and at least ten years of experience in the respective area. They will be required to have participated in the appraisal of three or more projects in their area of competence, including two or more outside Bulgaria. Also, they will be expected to have experience in implementation of one of more projects outside Bulgaria. Additional requirements will be added for each area of competence.