The European Commission is to hold a public consultation on whether an accessible system for peer review should be adopted. A trial period will follow providing the move proves popular.

As part of the proposal, Horizon 2020-funded research projects would be subjected to public scrutiny, which could then be considered as part of evaluators’ decision making process. The move comes as part of the commission’s vision of a more open and accessible Europe.

A commission spokesperson said: “This collaborative and open approach should allow interested outsiders to contribute to the project with new input, and also allow problems to be identified. This would not be a fully open review, as the expert reviewers would have the last say, but it would be a stepping stone towards it, to gauge the interest and identify potential benefits and problems.”

Scientists and researchers from across the EU have already offered their responses via the commission’s website.

Richard Smits, managing director at research consultancy CSI chemical based in Sofia, Bulgaria, said: “I think the burden of having to prepare reports that can be made public will be bigger than the benefit of getting feedback for the project participants.”

Fabio Casati, professor of computer science at the University of Trento, Italy, said: “I think project reviews as they are done today work reasonably well, so long as it does not become a marketing contest.”

Machado Pinto Matilde, associate professor of economics at the Carlos III University of Madrid, Spain, said: “I understand the transparency upside, but there are obvious disadvantages as well.”

Horizon 2020 reviews are currently made by commission staff, assisted by three experts per project.

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