On November 4, 2025 the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF) and the fteval Platform invited the community to an event about panel evaluation, to enable an exchange of experience.
For this podcast episode we tried to capture the discussion for our listeners: Magdalena Wicher and Michael Strassnig of WWTF together with Katharina Warta, managing partner of Technopolis Group in Austria, collected the most important discussion points. This podcast episode was recorded in German
While the benefits of panels are obvious, for example, critical points relating to the object of evaluation can be identified quickly and the role of ‘critical friends’ can be very valuable – at the same time, it is challenging and resource-intensive to establish a balanced and high-calibre panel and to generate ownership of the object of evaluation and trust. The importance of face-to-face meetings is particularly emphasised. Katharina shares her experience of group dynamics and uses the Johari window to explain how blind spots, unknowns and secrets can be uncovered. At the end, the discussion becomes somewhat controversial when it comes to the question of whether the panel itself or a ghostwriter should write the final report.
Resources:
- Slide show by WWTF about panel evaluation with two examples
- Examples provided by Technopolis Group:
- Evaluation Methodology for the evaluation of the scientific institutions of Latvia: https://www.izm.gov.lv/lv/media/29432/download?attachment
- Presentation of the evaluation report for the University of Luxembourg: https://www.chd.lu/fr/meeting/13645 (ab Minute 5:50)
Music: Urbana-Metronica (wooh-yeah mix) (ft. Morusque, Jeris, CSoul, Alex Beroza) by spinningmerkaba http://ccmixter.org/people/jlbrock44; SouljaUnit Remix of DeadRobot Music’s Surfy via https://freesound.org/people/SouljaUnit/sounds/640175/
Photo: Isabella Wagner