75.6
Board meeting 75
75.6
Decision on applications submitted in the third round of the open call 2016
Enclosures: List of applications for NOVA open call 2016, 3rd round
Applications
The following evaluation procedure is stated in the strategy approved by the Board in 2014:
“3. Final evaluation and approval by the NOVA Board.
Final evaluation and approval are based on the set priorities, including an evaluation of the Nordic
dimension of the application. The Board does not discuss the details of applications.
For courses that reach the NOVA Board through the application process described above, the most
important evaluation criterion is how well the course promotes the Nordic dimension as defined in the
NOVA strategy. This should be shown qualitatively, not quantitatively. Criteria that will be taken into
account therefore include the items listed below, and applicants need to make sure that they address all of
them clearly:
1. Does the topic fit with NOVA’s strategy and is it in accordance with the priorities, if any, set by the Board for the
current call?
2. Does the course provide postgraduate students with high-quality education in fields where the critical mass in one
country alone would be too small, or fields with a specific Nordic dimension, defined by, e.g., geographical, climatic or
cultural commonalities?
3. What is the added value of the course? Does it, for example, promote the exchange of best practices in teaching and
discipline know-how between teachers? Does it facilitate other forms of cooperation between teachers and students, for
example on research?
When evaluating applications, each board member will read all the applications and make brief comments
on the criteria mentioned above. In order to make grading comparable between evaluators, applications
should be categorised according to their quality based on the above criteria, and not given subjective
scores.” 1
Background information
12 applications for PhD courses as well as two applications for course series were submitted in the third
round of the open call 2016. Four courses in earlier approved course series are also presented to the Board
for final approval in this round of the open call, according to standard procedures for course series.
1
NOVA University network, “Strategy and Action Plan 2014-2017”, approved on 25 April 2014, pp. 8-9
75.6
Board meeting 75
If the Board approves all of the PhD course applications for 2016 with the proposed amounts, the total
maximum amount accorded to PhD courses running in 2017 will so far be approximately EUR 286 000. It is
still possible to apply for funding of PhD courses running in 2017 in one more round: the first round of the
open call 2017.
Notes from the secretariat
It is positive that the number of applications is as high as 12 for individual courses and two for course series,
compared to the low application numbers in the two first rounds of the open call 2017. However, in the
recent rounds of the open call, and particularly in this round, there seems to be some challenges with the
Nordic dimension and the requirement of joint Nordic course planning of NOVA courses. In particular, there
seems to be less collaboration between NOVA member institutions.
Earlier, the requirement was stricter: there had to be teachers from minimum three NOVA institutions from
different countries (or two NOVA countries plus one BOVA country) on the courses. In addition, the course
group planning the course had to invite teachers from all NOVA member institutions with activities in the
respective scientific area.
In some applications in the recent open calls, there has only been description of collaboration between one
NOVA institution and other non-Nordic institutions. In other applications, there is collaboration between
one NOVA institution and other Nordic non-NOVA institutions from other countries, and in some cases,
other non-NOVA institutions from their own country as well. In such cases, there is actual Nordic course
planning involving institutions from Nordic countries, however, not involving collaboration between NOVA
institutions from different countries.
The new regulations are more flexible, which probably makes it easier to apply for courses. In addition,
non-NOVA institutions may have other competences than NOVA member institutions, something that can
improve the quality of the courses. On the other side, networking is one of NOVA’s core activities together
with courses. It is a question if the current requirements are too flexible so that the networking between
the teachers at the NOVA member institutions is reduced. This also has economic implications as the NOVA
courses mostly are financed by member fee from NOVA institutions.