Appraisals for permanent scientific staff: changes to the working procedures of the Committee for the Assessment of Staff Scientific Activities (COMESP)

The COMESP, an independent advisory committee, is responsible for the recruitment of permanent scientists (excluding unit/entity heads) and for promotions (spring sessions) and biannual appraisals of permanent scientific managers in the "Research" and "Research engineering" sectors (fall sessions).

In line with the EU's HR Excellence in Research Award, recently obtained by the Institut Pasteur, and to improve the appraisal process, the organization and procedures of the COMESP will be changing from fall 2022. These changes are the result of a collective effort that began in early 2021, involving all the members of the COMESP, the MAASCC and the Scientific Careers and Assessment Department. They are based on pilot phases carried out in fall 2021 and spring 2022, and they received the approval of the CSE on June 16, 2022. The official texts ("COMESP internal regulations" and "Appraisal of scientific managers") have been updated.

The new matrices, which can be downloaded individually, set out the various criteria and rank them as "essential", "appreciated" or "not relevant/not required" for each sector and each rank, depending on the session (recruitment/promotion or biannual appraisal). For each criterion, a non-exhaustive list of examples is provided for information, which will make the recruitment and appraisal process clearer and more transparent both for those being appraised and for those performing the appraisals.

Starting with the fall 2022 session, the assessors will use the new criteria matrices. During their meeting with their assessor, scientific managers will be able to clarify aspects that they may not have mentioned in the forms that were available before the official texts were updated. Forms incorporating the changes will be available to use from 2023.

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