When appointing its experts the Foundation takes not only their academic track record into consideration, but also takes pains to preclude any partiality – be it positive or negative. For example, the Foundation does not call upon persons to act as its reviewers who belong to the same research institution or faculty as the applicant. Correspondingly, scholars and scientists who currently have an application under consideration by the Foundation, or whose application has been recently rejected, are as a rule not permitted to join in the assessment process.
The Foundation's reviewers maintain confidentiality with regard to applications passed on to them. Similarly, the Foundation maintains strict confidentiality in respect of the review process to ensure a clear opinion also in particularly problematical cases. In certain cases, however, an applicant may be supplied with excerpts from a review in order to provide an opportunity to revise points that have been criticized: this is always done anonymously.
