More than 54,000 researchers cast their votes / 649 places on 49 review boards / 37.9 percent of elected members are women

The 2023 review board election of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) has been completed. From 23 October to 20 November, approximately 150,000 eligible researchers were able to cast their votes online to fill 649 places on a total of 49 review boards for the term of office from 2024 to 2028. Four days after the end of the four-week election period, the provisional election results are now available.

A total of 54,068 researchers took part, each of whom had up to six votes which they cast electronically for 1,631 candidates. One outcome of the election is a further increase in the share of women: the percentage of elected female review board members is now 37.9. After the 2019 election, the figure was 32.1 percent.

Following the announcement of the provisional results, DFG President Professor Dr. Katja Becker thanked all researchers who had exercised their right to vote. “The review boards reflect more than any other statutory body the principle of self-governance in research as embraced by the DFG,” she said. The review board election involves the research community itself deciding the individuals who represent subject areas within the review boards.

“Review board members ensure that the DFG’s funding decisions are made based on research-led standards and in the spirit of curiosity, innovation and the thirst for knowledge,” said the DFG President. “At the same time, the voluntary commitment of review board members is indispensable for the DFG as a funding institution.”

Due to technical problems with the electronic voting system, it was necessary to extend the voting deadline by a few hours on the last day of voting: there was a display error in one of four possible candidate search paths. An analysis and assessment is currently being carried out to find out how this error may have had an impact on the election results.

As things currently stand, the DFG President will establish the final election results in February of next year. The newly appointed review boards will then be constituted at their first meetings in spring 2024.

In a three-stage process consisting of review, evaluation and decision, the review boards are responsible for assessing funding proposals to the DFG, thereby ensuring quality assurance in the review process. They compare all the proposals they have been allocated to identify the most eligible projects within the defined financial conditions. This involves evaluation of these proposals according to unified criteria that apply across all DFG programmes. Elected review board members are assigned to a subject area according to the focus of their research activities. A review board is made up of multiple interlinked subject-related research areas, thereby providing an expedient forum for comparative evaluation.

Further information

Media contact:

• DFG Press and Public Relations
  Phone +49 228 885-2109
  presse@dfg.de

Programme contact at the DFG Head Office:

• Christiane Burgbacher
  Phone +49 228 885-2421
  fachkollegienwahlen@dfg.de

For the provisional election results and the Election Regulations, along with further related information and notifications, see the election portal at

• www.dfg.de/fk-wahl2023 

See www.dfg.de/fachkollegien for more detailed information on review board activities, including a film about these statutory bodies.