Gov/en/Portal:R&D/Open-Calls:Commissions

💡 In simple words: Every open call is managed by a small team called a commission. This page explains who they are, what they do, and how they decide.

🎯 In 20 seconds (scientific summary): This page details the composition, roles, and processes of Open Call Commissions. Each call is managed by a dedicated commission led by a Chair/President, supported by a Facilitator, and composed of Evaluators. The commission evaluates proposals, seeks consensus, and conducts a post-funding follow-up to assess the maturity of the implemented ideas.

Composition of a Commission

Each Open Call is managed by a dedicated commission, typically composed of an odd number of members (usually 3, up to 5, 7, or 9 for complex or highly funded calls). The commission includes three main roles:

• The Chair: Appointed by the Steering Committee, the Chair leads the commission. They are responsible for forming their team of evaluators, framing the call, setting meeting dates, and ensuring decisions are justified.
• The Facilitator: An assigned assistant (currently the Foundation Director, later project assistants) who assists the Chair. They handle formal communication: acknowledging receipt of contributions, explaining the rules, and answering questions related to form. The Facilitator operates on a specific allocated hour budget. To prevent overload during highly successful calls, they must notify the team when 50% and 75% of their allocated hours are consumed.
• The Evaluators (Members): Selected by the Steering Committee or the Chair, these members are experts in the relevant field. They must be aware, experienced, and strong adherents to three core pillars: the free licensing culture (for software and content), the cooperative social economy, and direct democracy (for operational governance).

Roles and Responsibilities

The Chair

The Chair manages a modest communication budget intended to proactively and specifically inform relevant networks about the call (e.g., publishing the call, posting in forums and social networks, or creating a short video defining the challenge).

The Chair can participate in defining the call and has the authority to reframe, complete, specify, and document the call to make it clearer. If the evaluation process reveals the need for deeper studies or clarifications, the Chair has the flexibility to request additional resources (time, money, expertise) or to announce that only a partial set of results will be achieved during the current cycle.

The Chair has the obligation to justify the commission's choices. Their primary (though not exclusive) objective is to reach a consensus or consent among the evaluators, reducing polarized approaches as much as possible. If a consensus cannot be reached, the Chair must explicitly mention opposing views in the final decision.

The Facilitator

The Facilitator ensures the smooth administrative running of the call. They maintain databases of potential experts with the required sensitivities (free culture, commons, project engineering) to invite them to future open call commissions.

Strategic Supervision and Remuneration

The strategic supervision of the Open Calls is ensured by the Steering Committee and the Foundation Council of the Ynternet.org Foundation. Their role in this context is strictly limited to strategic analysis and deployment oversight, not operational implementation.

For their participation in these specific strategic supervision sessions, the members of the Steering Committee and the Foundation Council may receive attendance fees (jetons de présence).

The Chair of an Open Call commission also receives modest attendance fees for their responsibilities, slightly higher than standard members to reflect the workload of framing the call and driving consensus.

To comply with the recommendations of the Swiss Federal Supervisory Board for Foundations and the Geneva tax exemption authorities for non-profit entities:

• All attendance fees strictly follow official accepted rates for tax-exempt organizations.
• A strict annual cap is applied. Even if a person accumulates roles (for example, being a Foundation Council member and chairing an Open Call commission), the total attendance fees cannot exceed a maximum of CHF 10,000 per member, per year.

Evaluation and Follow-up Process

During the Call

The commission meets at predefined dates to evaluate proposals. When evaluating submissions, the commission is required to use the Open Call CDIEM Framework as much as possible to ensure structured, fair, and transparent assessments.

During the entire duration of the call, the Chair and the Facilitator (and optionally the other members) conduct a minimum of one check-in (pointage) every 15 days to monitor progress and discussions.

Post-Funding Follow-up

The commission remains active even after the initial funds are released, although with reduced activity. Only half of the allocated reward is distributed immediately upon selection.

A mandatory check-in occurs one year (or sometimes two years) later to assess the maturity of the idea:

• If the idea was successfully implemented and maintained, the second half of the reward is distributed to the same beneficiary.
• If the idea was not implemented, or if it was countered or replaced by better approaches, the remaining funds may be distributed to other beneficiaries, or a mix of the original and new contributors.

See also: Open Call Main · Open Call FAQ