A total of 1,383 researchers are standing for election to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft’s “Parliament of Science”, a group of scientists who advise the DFG on funding decisions.
The Parliament of Science has 606 seats, which cover 48 scientific fields. The election, which started on 7 November and will run for four weeks, will elect parliament members for 2012 to 2015.
“In the parliament we have democratically legitimated scientists who volunteer to participate in making decisions to fund research,” said Matthias Kleiner, president of the DFG, who launched the election process.
Members of the Parliament of Science choose experts for the DFG’s early-stage evaluation procedures and evaluate funding applications in their final stages. The parliament also advises the DFG board and can suggest strategic funding projects.
The DFG said it expected over 100,000 scientists in Germany to participate in the online elections.
The DFG is Germany’s largest public research funder, and channels most of the government’s research money.