Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) has now announced the results of its reviewer elections: 88,000 entitled scientists have elected 650 reviewers in 189 special fields. The average age of the new reviewers, at 53.2, lies 2.5 years below the average age from the last election in 1995. The proportion of women has risen from 4.4 to 7.7 per cent. The elections brought about extensive changes in composition in that only 200 elected reviewers were re-elected, all the others have taken office for the first time. These honorary reviewers, who are elected by free and secret ballot, check applications and pass their recommendations for financial support to the DFG´s various bodies. Their decisions are based on the scientific qualifications of the applicant, the scientific quality of his project, and the scope of support requested.
The number of elected reviewers has shown a clear increase from the previous figure of 523 to the present 650. This is designed to relieve the considerable workload of the honorary reviewers, and to further shorten the time required for processing the applications addressed to the DFG. The list of elected reviewers may be seen in the Internet under http://www.dfg.de/organisation/fachgutachter/fachgutachtersystem.html (in German)