Ensuring Sustainable Evaluation: How to Improve Quality of Evaluating Grant Proposals?

The principle of sustainable development is an obligation placed on all entities involved in the implementation and delivery of the structural funds made available not only by the European Commission but also by grant donors from all over the world. For this reason, when applying for a grant, proposals need to demonstrate the positive or neutral impact of the project on sustainable development. To be able to select projects that will ensure sustainability, we need to ensure the effective evaluation of the proposals. The process of their evaluation should be objective, unbiased and transparent. However, current processes have several limitations. The process by which grants are awarded and proposals evaluated has come under increasing scrutiny, with a particular focus on the selection of reviewers, fallibility of their assessments, the randomness of assessments and the low level of common agreement. In our studies, we demonstrated how some of those limitations may be overcome. Our topic of interest is the work of reviewers/experts who evaluate scientific grant proposals. We analyse data coming from two prominent scientific national grant foundations, which differ in terms of expert’s selection procedure. We discuss the problems associated with both procedures (rating style of the reviewers, lack of calibration and serial position effect) and present potential solutions to prevent them. We conclude that, to increase the unbiasedness and fairness of the evaluation process, reviewers’ work should be analysed. We also suggest that, within a certain panel, all grant proposals should be evaluated by the same set of reviewers, which would help to eliminate the distorting influence of the selection of a very severe or very lenient expert. Such effective assessment and moderation of the process would help ensure the quality and sustainability of evaluations.

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Identifying Measurement Invariant Item Sets in Cross-Cultural Settings Using an Automated Item Selection Procedure

Methodology ◽

10.1027/1614-2241/a000155 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 14 (4) ◽

pp. 177-188 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Martin Schultze ◽

Michael Eid

Keyword(s):

Measurement Invariance ◽

Optimal Solution ◽

Selection Procedure ◽

Cross Cultural ◽

Item Selection ◽

Ant System ◽

Item Quality ◽

Ant System Algorithm ◽

Selection For ◽

Selection Of

Abstract. In the construction of scales intended for the use in cross-cultural studies, the selection of items needs to be guided not only by traditional criteria of item quality, but has to take information about the measurement invariance of the scale into account. We present an approach to automated item selection which depicts the process as a combinatorial optimization problem and aims at finding a scale which fulfils predefined target criteria – such as measurement invariance across cultures. The search for an optimal solution is performed using an adaptation of the [Formula: see text] Ant System algorithm. The approach is illustrated using an application to item selection for a personality scale assuming measurement invariance across multiple countries.

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Combination of ribosome and phage display for fast selection of high affinity VHH antibody fragments

Bulletin of Russian State Medical University ◽

10.24075/brsmu.2019.002 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 27-33

Author(s):

YuE Kravchenko ◽

SV Ivanov ◽

DS Kravchenko ◽

EI Frolova ◽

SP Chumakov

Keyword(s):

Phage Display ◽

Selection Procedure ◽

Free System ◽

Phage Displays ◽

High Affinity ◽

Binding Domains ◽

A Cell ◽

Vhh Antibodies ◽

Efficiency Of Selection ◽

Selection Of

Selection of antibodies using phage display involves the preliminary cloning of the repertoire of sequences encoding antigen-binding domains into phagemid, which is considered the bottleneck of the method, limiting the resulting diversity of libraries and leading to the loss of poorly represented variants before the start of the selection procedure. Selection in cell-free conditions using a ribosomal display is devoid from this drawback, however is highly sensitive to PCR artifacts and the RNase contamination. The aim of the study was to test the efficiency of a combination of both methods, including pre-selection in a cell-free system to enrich the source library, followed by cloning and final selection using phage display. This approach may eliminate the shortcomings of each method and increase the efficiency of selection. For selection, alpaca VHH antibody sequences suitable for building an immune library were used due to the lack of VL domains. Analysis of immune libraries from the genes of the VH3, VHH3 and VH4 families showed that the VHH antibodies share in the VH3 and VH4 gene groups is insignificant, and selection from the combined library is less effective than from the VHH3 family of sequences. We found that the combination of ribosomal and phage displays leads to a higher enrichment of high-affinity fragments and avoids the loss of the original diversity during cloning. The combined method allowed us to obtain a greater number of different high-affinity sequences, and all the tested VHH fragments were able to specifically recognize the target, including the total protein extracts of cell cultures.

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The Challenge of Evaluating Virtual Communities of Practice: A Systematic Mapping Study

Interdisciplinary Journal of Information Knowledge and Management ◽

10.28945/4505 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 15 ◽

pp. 039-064

Author(s):

Rogerio Ferreira da Silva ◽

Itana Maria de Souza Gimenes ◽

José Carlos Maldonado

Keyword(s):

Communities Of Practice ◽

Virtual Communities ◽

Evaluation Process ◽

Evaluation Methods ◽

Systematic Mapping Study ◽

Research Gaps ◽

Systematic Mapping ◽

Research Questions ◽

Virtual Communities Of Practice ◽

Selection Of

Aim/Purpose: This paper presents a study of Virtual Communities of Practice (VCoP) evaluation methods that aims to identify their current status and impact on knowledge sharing. The purposes of the study are as follows: (i) to identify trends and research gaps in VCoP evaluation methods; and, (ii) to assist researchers to position new research activities in this domain. Background: VCoP have become a popular knowledge sharing mechanism for both individuals and organizations. Their evaluation process is complex; however, it is recognized as an essential means to provide evidences of community effectiveness. Moreover, VCoP have introduced additional features to face to face Communities of Practice (CoP) that need to be taken into account in evaluation processes, such as geographical dispersion. The fact that VCoP rely on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to execute their practices as well as storing artifacts virtually makes more consistent data analysis possible; thus, the evaluation process can apply automatic data gathering and analysis. Methodology: A systematic mapping study, based on five research questions, was carried out in order to analyze existing studies about VCoP evaluation methods and frameworks. The mapping included searching five research databases resulting in the selection of 1,417 papers over which a formal analysis process was applied. This process led to the preliminary selection of 39 primary studies for complete reading. After reading them, we select 28 relevant primary studies from which data was extracted and synthesized to answer the proposed research questions. Contribution: The authors of the primary studies analyzed along this systematic mapping propose a set of methods and strategies for evaluating VCoP, such as frameworks, processes and maturity models. Our main contribution is the identification of some research gaps present in the body of studies, in order to stimulate projects that can improve VCoP evaluation methods and support its important role in social learning. Findings: The systematic mapping led to the conclusion that most of the approaches for VCoP evaluation do not consider the combination of data structured and unstructured metrics. In addition, there is a lack of guidelines to support community operators’ actions based on evaluation metrics.

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The Long Road to Sustainability

10.1093/oso/9780198819516.001.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Alexander Gillespie

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Environmental Problem ◽

Social Sustainability ◽

Good News ◽

Correct Selection ◽

The Third ◽

Positive Indicators ◽

Laws And Policies ◽

Developed World ◽

Selection Of

This book examines the idea of sustainable development, made up of economic, social, and environmental parts over the period of human history. This work suggests humanity has been unsustainable in all three areas for most of its history, although in the last few hundred years the scale of unsustainability has increased, while, simultaneously, answers have started to emerge. This conclusion can be seen in two parts, namely the economic and social sides of sustainable development and then the environmental ones. This work suggests that, with the correct selection of tools, solid and positive foundations for the economic and social sides of sustainable development is possible as the world globalizes. This is not, however, a foregone conclusion. Despite a number of recent positive indicators in this area, there are still very large unanswered questions with existing mechanisms and other gaps in the international architecture which, if not fixed, could quickly make problems of economic and social sustainability worse, not better. With the third leg of sustainable development, that for the environment, the optimism is not as strong. The good news is that science, laws, and policies have evolved and expanded to the level that, in theory, there is no environmental problem which cannot be solved. In many areas, especially in the developed world, success is already easy to measure. Where it is not easy to measure, and pessimism creeps in, is in the developing world, which is now inheriting a scale and mixture of environmental difficulties which are simply unprecedented.

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Geotourism—Examining Tools for Sustainable Development

Geosciences ◽

10.3390/geosciences11010030 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 30

Author(s):

Marie-Luise Frey

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Good Practice ◽

Geological Heritage ◽

World Heritage Site ◽

Infrastructure Development ◽

Regional Tourism ◽

Heritage Site ◽

Heritage Science ◽

Geosite Assessment ◽

Selection Of

From the middle of the 1990s, geotourism was introduced through the first geotrails, their evolution, and the first geopark worldwide in Gerolstein/Vulkaneifel, Germany. The latter is one of the founding members of the European Geoparks Network, which was established in 2000 at the International Tourism Bourse (ITB) in Berlin. The main goal of the first geopark was to link geological heritage with tourism in a rural area that was trying to create new perspectives to inspire young people to stay in their home territory. Geotourism was initiated as part of sustainable tourist development and for future sustainable development at that time in the Gerolstein region. The first steps to implement the Gerolstein/Vulkaneifel Geopark, Germany, were taken in 1992. The core aspects included geological heritage, science transfer, and education as tools for developing geotourism in the broad sense and integrating local people and municipalities in the geopark activities of the rural region. Close collaboration with the local and regional tourism organizations highlighted the need to both define tools and demonstrate their success. Up to now, practice has shown that such success can be demonstrated by the infrastructure created, as well as adjacent measures and activities. A network of factors was determined to play a significant role in ensuring the successful sustainable development in a geopark across the field of geotourism. There are many activities and publications on geological heritage, geosite assessment, significance, and use, but there are fewer which reflect on the network of factors highlighted in this contribution which were first presented in 2002. In many publications and investigations, one factor in particular is emphasized, e.g., infrastructure development, such as panels or other items. Not all of the mentioned factors, however, are being addressed. As a result, a selection of good practice examples of UNESCO Global Geoparks (UGGP) working on the network-oriented conceptual basis has been studied here, in line with the conceptual principle set forth about 25 years ago. The geopark examples in this study include Lesvos Island UGGp (Greece), Naturtejo UGGP (Portugal), Vulkaneifel UGGp (Germany), and Hong Kong UGGP (China), as well as the example of the Messel Pit World Heritage Site (WHS) (Germany). The latter was integrated to present an example which is not a geopark, showing that this concept can also be transferred to a WHS as a tool for sustainable development according the UN 2030 Agenda. The information on the development of the selected examples was obtained by visiting the geopark territory and from the geopark’s websites and published material as a combined methodology.

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Gradient boosting for linear mixed models

The International Journal of Biostatistics ◽

10.1515/ijb-2020-0136 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 0 (0) ◽

Author(s):

Colin Griesbach ◽

Benjamin Säfken ◽

Elisabeth Waldmann

Keyword(s):

Random Effects ◽

Mixed Models ◽

Selection Procedure ◽

Classification Theory ◽

Gradient Boosting ◽

Random Structure ◽

Boosting Algorithm ◽

The One ◽

Biased Estimates ◽

Selection Of

Abstract Gradient boosting from the field of statistical learning is widely known as a powerful framework for estimation and selection of predictor effects in various regression models by adapting concepts from classification theory. Current boosting approaches also offer methods accounting for random effects and thus enable prediction of mixed models for longitudinal and clustered data. However, these approaches include several flaws resulting in unbalanced effect selection with falsely induced shrinkage and a low convergence rate on the one hand and biased estimates of the random effects on the other hand. We therefore propose a new boosting algorithm which explicitly accounts for the random structure by excluding it from the selection procedure, properly correcting the random effects estimates and in addition providing likelihood-based estimation of the random effects variance structure. The new algorithm offers an organic and unbiased fitting approach, which is shown via simulations and data examples.

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