Guidelines for Writing Referee Reports

for Scholarship Applications as Part of the 2024 Bavarian Equal Opportunities Sponsorship Bayerische Gleichstellungsförderung (BGF) – Promoting Equal Opportunities for Women in Research and Teaching

The goals of the BGF sponsorship are:

• overcoming existing structural barriers to achieving equal opportunities for women in research and teaching
• increasing the share of women at each post-PhD scientific qualification-level and the share of women receiving the respective diplomas
• and increasing the number of women in leadership positions at institutions of research and teaching, especially in professorships

The referee report plays a key role when suitable candidates are being selected. Therefore, we request that you base your evaluation on rigorous standards.

The following are proposed and recommended criteria and questions for your report. In order to achieve a certain degree of formality and to make the reports easier to compare, we urge that you observe these criteria.
In any case, please make an overall assessment using the grading levels listed under item 4.

1. Bases for the assessment

• Did a conversation with the applicant occur while this report was being generated?
• How did you become acquainted with the applicant?
• How long have you known the applicant?
• What do you base your assessment on?

2. Applicant’s qualifications

Assessment of scientific qualifications using the following criteria:

1. Achievements in academic studies
2. Achievements as part of the dissertation
3. Achievements as part of a post-doc project
4. Achievements as part of the “habilitation”
5. Achievements in teaching
6. Quality of publications
7. Raising third-party funding
8. Other scientific involvements

3. Assessment of the applicant’s project

Assessment of the project using the following criteria:

1. Strength of the preliminary work
2. Quality, also with regard to originality and the anticipated contribution to knowledge
3. Internationality
4. Research plan / research goal
5. Feasibility / time schedule
6. For follow-on applications: assessment on the progress of the project, and on the opdated project description

4. Overall assessment

I support sponsorship of the applicant:

• emphatically/strongly and without any reservations
• strongly
• in general
• with some reservations
• not at all

Important information

1. Please send the referee report either by post to the Women’s Representative at Ludwig Maximilians-Universität in Munich: Frauenbeauftragte der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1, 80539 München or by e-mail to frauenbeauftragte@lmu.de.
2. The final deadline for receipt of applicant referee-reports is March 12th, 2024. For this purpose, a digital transmission of the referee report to the aforementioned e-mail address is sufficient. Further information on BGF can be found at www.frauenbeauftragte.lmu.de.
3. Referee reports from Junior-Professors will not be accepted.