Danube river basin lighthouse – Demonstration of effective and sustainable management of sediments in the Danube river-Black sea system

Evaluation Process

Proposals will undergo a rigorous three-phase selection process to ensure transparency and equal treatment:

1. Admissibility & Eligibility Check: F6S validates basic administrative requirements (deadline compliance, applicant type, and established region eligibility). Bypassed applications receive an official justification notice.
2. Internal In/Out Scope Screening: The SUNDANSE Selection Committee reviews Section 1 (Project Description) and Section 5 (Permits) to verify strict framework alignment and the selection of multiple replication activities. Bypassed applications at this screening stage will be placed on the Initial Acceptance List to move forward.
3. Remote Expert Evaluation: Each proposal on the Initial Acceptance List is independently evaluated by at least two external experts. Proposals are scored on a 0–5 scale across three core criteria: Excellence, Impact, and Implementation. An individual criterion threshold of 3 and an overall threshold of 10 apply.

Ranking & Final Selection

Proposals passing all thresholds will be ranked based on their average expert evaluation score. To ensure geographical diversification across European freshwater systems, a strict country diversity cap applies: no two selected applications can originate from the same country. If necessary, lower-scoring duplicate country applications will be bypassed in favour of the next highest-scoring proposal from an unrepresented eligible country. Bypassed applications will be placed on a Reserve List. Selected finalists will be announced in late November 2026 and invited to the contracting phase.

Grantees can optionally opt into advanced, real-time sediment and water toxicity monitoring using the non-destructive Whole-Cell Fibre-Optic Biosensor technology developed by the project’s academic partner (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev), provided at no additional cost to the applicant budget.

Performance across all operational tasks will be evaluated at the end of each phase by assigned technical mentors using a strict Milestone Review matrix based on Deliverable Quality (30% weight), Technical Performance Indicators (60% weight), and Deadline Compliance (10% weight). Grantees falling below the performance threshold (7 points) will be granted a formal five (5) working days correction window to adjust deliverables and satisfy mentor specifications before any program exclusion or payment withholding is finalised. All finalised research publications, dataset records, and reporting outputs generated through the funded activities must adhere strictly to FAIR data standards and be shared openly via the unified SUNDANSE Data Network repository.