1. Conflict of Interest

The conflict of interest is detected in the following situations:

1. An expert is a principal investigator, a lead participant of the project, a participant of the project in any of the project proposals submitted in the open call for project proposals of the Fundamental and Applied Research, 2024 (hereinafter referred to as — the call) announced by the Latvian Council of Science (hereinafter referred to as — the Council)
2. The expert has been involved in the scientific cooperation with the project applicant, the principal investigator or the lead participant of the project for the previous five years. Scientific cooperation includes joint scientific publications, preparation of cooperation project proposals for the call and other calls for projects, joint project implementation and other types of cooperation;
3. The expert has been in the work supervisor-student relationships with the principal investigator or the lead participant of the project for the previous ten years;
4. The expert is in a kinship (father, mother, grandmother, grandfather, child, grandchild, adopted, adopter, brother, sister, half-sister, half-brother, spouse) relationship, affinity relationship, or independent and objective performance of the expert’s responsibilities are influenced by reasons related to emotional life, economic or any other interests that the expert has in common with the principal investigator, lead participant of the project;
5. The expert may directly or indirectly benefit financially in case of approval or non-approval of the project proposal, or in case of the interim scientific report decision to “continue the project” or decision “not to continue the project”, or in case of the project final scientific report decision “the project goal is reached” or the decision “the project goal is not reached”, and may benefit financially from access to information on the project proposal / project interim scientific report / project final scientific report;
6. The expert has had a personal unsettled conflict with the principal investigator or the lead participant of the project;
7. The expert and the principal investigator or the lead participant of the project have now and during the last three years been employed in one organization (including committee, editorial board and other organizational structures), as well as the expert is employed, is in subordination, control or other supervisory relations with the principal investigator, the lead participant of the project or participants of the project.

2. Confidentiality Requirements

Upon the agreement to participate in the evaluation of the project proposals in the call / project interim scientific report / project final scientific report, the expert agrees to meet the following confidentiality requirements:

1. Any information provided by the Council to the expert shall be used only for the evaluation of the project proposal / project interim scientific report / project final scientific report. The expert is prohibited to transfer the received information and prepared reviews to any third parties.
2. The expert ensures that all documentation and information related to the evaluation, both in a paper and electronic format, shall be kept safely and destroyed after the end of the project evaluation process;
3. The consolidated review of the project proposal, the project interim scientific report and the project final scientific report submitted by the expert will be sent to the principal investigator, the review shall not contain any information on the identity of the expert.