REPORT
ON THE EVALUATION PROCESS 
OF THE DOCTORAL SCHOOLS PARTICIPATION DOSSIERS 
AT THE SCIENTIFIC PROJECTS CONTEST 
FOR STATE-FUNDED DOCTORAL GRANTS DISTRIBUTION 
FOR THE 2016-2017 ACADEMIC YEAR  

LAYOUT:
1.	LEGAL FRAMEWORK……………………………………………………………………………..3 
2.	DEVELOPMENT STAGES OF THE 
    SCIENTIFIC PROJECTS CONTEST………………………………………………………….…...3 
3.	EVALUATION PROCESS OF THE APPLICATIONS ……………………………….….………4 
4.	EVALUATION OUTCOMES …………………..……………………………………………..…….8
5.	RECOMMENDATIONS………………………………………………………………………...…..10

I.	LEGAL FRAMEWORK 
The evaluation process of the applications for doctoral grants was performed based on:
a.	Regulation on the Organisation of Doctoral Studies, Third Higher Education Cycle (GD 1007 of 10.12.2016).
b.	Methodology of the Development of Scientific Projects Contest for State-Funded Doctoral Grants Distribution (Order no. 86 of 8 February 2016). 
c.	Government Decision no. 816 of 11.11.2015 on Granting the Right to Organize Doctoral Studies to Higher Education Institutions, Consortia, National and International Partnerships.

II.		DEVELOPMENT STAGES OF THE SCIENTIFIC PROJECTS CONTEST 
1.	At the first stage, the contest for the selection of scientific projects was carried out within the Doctoral School, based on institutional selection criteria of the files for registration to the national contest, and according to the above-stated Methodology of the Development of Scientific Projects Contest for State-Funded Doctoral Grants Distribution.
2.	In accordance with the circular no. 03/14-191 of 26.02.2016, by 11 April 2016, Doctoral Schools submitted to the Ministry of Education, the participation dossiers for the national contest of scientific projects for state-funded doctoral grants distribution, for the 2016-2017 academic year. 
a.	Submitted dossiers were subjected to a validation process, while the scientific projects – to an assessment process, according to the criteria developed by the Ministry of Education.  
b.	The Ministry of Education determined the figure of the Admission Plan to doctoral studies, third higher education cycle for the 2016-2017 academic year, on the basis of several criteria, among which: outcomes of the evaluation of the submitted to the contest dossiers, results on areas of the enrolment process to doctoral studies for the current academic year, strategic vision of the development of Moldova, etc. The figure will be submitted for approval to the Government after obtaining favourable opinions from the ministries concerned.
c.	Based on the Admission Plan, approved by the Government, and on the outcomes of the participation dossiers evaluation, submitted by the Doctoral Schools, the Ministry of Education decides also on doctoral grants distribution quotas between Doctoral Schools. 
3.	The third stage of the contest is organized within the institution/ Doctoral School and implies the distribution of the obtained grants between Doctoral Schools and doctoral studies coordinators. 
a.	The grants, obtained through contest by the Doctoral School, are awarded only for validated projects that doctoral coordinators participated at the national contest with. Once the Order for doctoral grants distribution between Doctoral Schools is out, the Ministry of Education communicates the list of validated projects to the institution that organizes doctoral studies. 
 
III.	EVALUATION PROCESS OF THE APPLICATIONS 
1.	The group of experts
	Under the article 123 of the Regulation on the Organisation of Doctoral Studies, Third Higher Education Cycle (GD 1007 of 10.12.2016) and according to the Order no. 452 of 13 May 2016, the Ministry of Education involved a group of experts to evaluate the applications for state-funded doctoral grants for the 2016-2017 academic year. The group of experts concentrated 13 professionals from the 6 fields of study: 1. Natural Sciences, 2. Engineering Sciences and Technologies; 3. Medical Sciences; 4. Agricultural Sciences; 5. Social and Economic Sciences; 6. Humanitarian Sciences. Each project was evaluated by 2 experts.
2.	 Evaluation criteria of the applications for doctoral grants
The evaluation process of the applications for doctoral grants consisted of 3 phases:
a.	Validation of the dossiers of the Doctoral School/s.
b.	Validation of the dossiers of the doctoral coordinators. 
c.	Evaluation of the scientific projects submitted for the contest.
Dossiers validation and projects evaluation was carried out according to the criteria provided in the Methodology of the Development of Scientific Projects Contest for State-Funded Doctoral Grants Distribution, Order no. 86 of 8 February 2016, (subsequently Methodology).

Validation of the dossiers of the Doctoral Schools and doctoral coordinators means checking the level of completion of the Doctoral Schools and coordinators dossiers, according to the Methodology. Dossiers that attest the lack of at least one document from the ones listed in the validation records below are considered invalid.
A.	Validation Record of the Doctoral School Dossier
The institution organizing doctoral studies____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Doctoral School _____________________________________________________________________________________________
No 	Validation criterion	Indicators	Score	Acquired score	
I.1	Completion level of the Doctoral School dossier 	a.	the total number of requested doctoral grants by the Doctoral School, their distribution on scientific fields depending on the type of doctorate and   the organizational format of the doctoral studies, according to the Form 4 (Methodology); 	1 point for each indicator that meets the requirements;

0.1 points for each indicator that partially meets the requirements

0 points* – lack of the document		
		b.	single list of the requested doctoral grants by the institution, according to the Form 2 (Methodology);			
		c.	explanatory memoranda for the requested grants;			
		d.	doctoral studies coordinators’ dossiers			

	Max. - 4 points ** 
Min. – 0, 4 points	

*If at least one of the indicator was rated with 0 points, the dossier is considered invalid
**Doctoral Schools, whose dossiers scored the maximum points in the validation process, will be favoured during grant distribution.

B.	Validation Record of the Doctoral Studies Coordinator’s Dossier, Grant Applicant
Name, surname of the evaluated coordinator______________________________________________________________________
Doctoral School ______________________________________________________________________________________________
 Name, surname of the expert ____________________________    
                        
No 	
Evaluation criterion	
Indicators	
Score	
Acquired score	

I.1	
Completion level of the  coordinator’s dossier	
e.	Curriculum Vitae (Europass)	
1 point for each indicator that meets the requirements;

0,1 points for each indicator that partially meets the requirements

0 points *** – lack of the document	

	
	
f.	copy of the habilitation certificate;	

	
	
g.	list of the scientific works for the last 10 years of scientific-didactic activity; 	

	
	
h.	list of the PhD students with their doctoral theses topics, that are valid on the day the project is submitted but who have not defended their doctoral thesis yet, year of enrolment, major and list of research topics for each PhD student (Form 1a)*;	

	
	
i.	list of PhD students with their defended doctoral theses, topic of the thesis,  year of enrolment and year of defence (Form 1b)**;	

	
	
j.	list and number of requested doctoral grants (Form 2);	

	
	
k.	topics of the doctoral theses for each requested grant, either individual or a set of grants, as a description of the scientific project, where the PhD students will be involved (Form 3); 	

*If the coordinator does not have any doctoral theses valid on the day of project submitting, a dash should mark the respective indicator
** If the coordinator does not have any students who defended their theses because he/she did not have any theses to coordinate or his/her students have not finished their doctoral studies yet, a dash should mark the respective indicator
*** If at least one of the indicator was rated with 0 points, the dossier is considered invalid	

II.1 	
Coordination availability of the doctoral studies coordinator 
	
a.	habilitation certificate validity	
1 point for each complied indicator
0 points ** –neglecting the requirement of the indicator	

	
	
b.	correlation between the doctoral thesis topic and the habilitation field of the coordinator	

	
	
c.	correlation between the doctoral thesis topic and the approved doctoral programs of the Doctoral School, according to the GD no. 816 of 11.11.2015 	

	
	
d.	compliance with the coordination limit (max. 5 PhD students)*	

⃰  If the number of submitted to the contest projects exceeds 5 PhD students allowed for coordination, the expert will choose from the submitted by the coordinator list, the optimum number of projects, depending on the acquired score by each project, so the limit for coordination is kept.
** If at least one of the indicators (a,b,c,d) was rated with 0 points, the dossier is considered invalid.  	

To the third phase of scientific projects evaluation, only the dossiers of the Doctoral Schools and of the coordinators that passed the validation phase, have access. The evaluation process of the scientific projects is carried out in compliance with the Evaluation Form shown below.  

C.	Evaluation Form of the Scientific Projects Submitted to the Contest

Project title___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Name, surname of the expert___________________________________                               Expert’s signature ____________________________
	
No 	Evaluation criterion	Indicators	Maximum score	Acquired score	
1 	Value and importance of the scientific project 	topic relevance to the research field
	20 points		
		degree of novelty of the research topic
	15 points		
		topic originality, emerging from general and specific
	20 points		
2	Project management
	keeping within the planned time limits
	5 points		
		correlation between the project proposals and coordinator’s field of scientific interest, displayed in the list of scientific works 
	5 points		
		consistency level of the planned research with the level and complexity of a doctoral thesis
	5 points		
3	Research outcomes 	Relevance of the expected outcomes and their consonance with the pursued objectives
	10 points		
		Economic, social and cultural impact of the research 	20 points		
TOTAL: max. 100 points
Passing score: 75 points		

The projects that scored 75 points and more are liable to obtain doctoral grants in the institutional contest for acquired grants distribution. 
IV.	EVALUATION OUTCOMES 
42 Doctoral Schools (out of 43) within the 16 institutions (including consortia and national and international partnerships) having the right to organize doctoral studies signed up for the contest. 
The demand of the institutions applicant for grants reached the figure of 488 doctoral grants for the 496 submitted scientific projects. In comparison with the 2015-2016 academic year 663 scientific projects were submitted.
The number of submitted projects and of the requested grants on fields for the 2016-2017 academic year varies according to the following table:
No 	Fields of study	Number of requested grants	Number of submitted projects 	
1.	Natural Sciences	69	69	
2.	Engineering Sciences and Technologies	36	36	
3.	Medical Sciences	77	77	
4.	Agricultural Sciences	10	10	
5.	Social and Economic Sciences	199	202	
6.	Humanitarian Sciences	97	102	

Total	
488	
496	

 As an outcome of the validation process of the coordinators’ dossiers and evaluation process of the proposed scientific projects, the following results, on fields of study, were recorded:
No 	Fields of study	Number of submitted projects	Number of validated projects	Number of projects considered invalid	Invalidation reason	
1.	Natural Sciences	69	53	16 projects 	9 dossiers, containing 15 projects:
4 dossiers –habilitation certificate is null on the date of submitting the project or the certificate is absent
3 dossiers –the limit of coordination is neglected (maximum 5 PhD students)
2 dossiers – projects related to programs, for which the Doctoral School did not obtain an authorisation
1 project – did not acquire a passing score	
2.	Engineering Sciences and Technologies	36	29	7	2 dossiers, containing 2 projects
2 dossiers - the limit of coordination is neglected (maximum 5 PhD students)

5 projects - did not acquire a passing score	
3.	Medical Sciences	77	61	16	4 dossiers, containing 5 projects
2 dossiers – habilitation certificate is null on the date of submitting the project or the certificate is absent
2 dossiers – topic of the project is not compatible with the habilitation field

11 projects - did not acquire a passing score	
4.	Agricultural Sciences	10	10	-			
5.	Social and Economic Sciences	202	103	99	30 dossiers, containing 42 projects:
10 dossiers - the limit of coordination is neglected (maximum 5 PhD students)
8 dossiers - habilitation certificate is null on the date of submitting the project or the certificate is absent
7 dossiers - topic of the project is not compatible with the habilitation field
4 dossiers – contain projects related to programs, for which the Doctoral School did not obtain an authorisation
1 dossier – scientific project proposal is absent

57 - did not acquire a passing score	
6.	Humanitarian Sciences	102	58	44	14 dossiers, containing 23 projects:
4 dossiers - projects related to programs, for which the Doctoral School did not obtain an authorisation
5 dossiers – the limit of coordination is neglected (maximum 5 PhD students)
2 dossiers - topic of the project is not compatible with the habilitation field
2 dossiers - habilitation certificate is null on the date of submitting the project or the certificate is absent
1 dossier -  more documents are absent in the dossier 

21 projects – did not acquire a passing score (including 3 projects that have been already pending since 2015-2016 admission, to the same coordinators who submitted the projects)	
Total	496	314	182		
V.	RECOMMENDATIONS 

a.	To organize in a more efficient period of time the institutional contest for the selection of dossiers and scientific projects to be submitted to the national contest for grants distribution between the Doctoral Schools.

b.	To set clear institutional criteria for selection of doctoral studies coordinators’ dossiers, that would not neglect provisions of the Methodology of the Development of Scientific Projects Contest for State-Funded Doctoral Grants Distribution. 

c.	To establish new institutional control tools, in order to check the data provided by the coordinators, doctoral grant applicants, such as: number of coordinated PhD students, doctoral projects/ topics that are in progress, possessing of the habilitation certificate and its term of validity etc. 

d.	To renew, within a reasonable time, the habilitation certificate of the doctoral coordinator that intends to participate in the doctoral grants contest.

e.	To broadcast the information about the doctoral programs, for which the Doctoral School obtained an authorisation, by different means, including posting it on the web page. The same relates to the information about other national and institutional relevant legal acts.

f.	 To submit to the national contest for doctoral grants distribution only the dossiers that after a rigorous selection within the Doctoral School/ institution meet the requirements referred to in the Methodology of the Development of Scientific Projects Contest for State-Funded Doctoral Grants Distribution.