Dataset of Peer Review Assessments: Formas' call Explore 2025

The attached material contains anonymised peer review data from Formas’ 2025 call Explore – Innovative Research for the Environment, Agricultural Sciences, and Spatial Planning. The dataset includes assessments from 176 reviewers of 1,024 submitted research applications. All data is anonymised, including reviewer identities and application identifiers. 

The call
Explore is an open, curiosity-driven call in which researchers are free to define their own research questions within Formas’ areas of responsibility: environment, agricultural sciences, and spatial planning. Research questions may also address cross-cutting and overarching issues. The call welcomes both basic and applied research from all disciplines, as well as interdisciplinary approaches. As a result, the submitted applications are diverse in terms of research topics, disciplinary perspectives, and expected societal contributions. In 2025, a total of 85 projects was funded, resulting in a success rate of eight percent. 

Review panels
The applications submitted to the call were distributed across eight panels. Each panel included a review group of approximately 20 external reviewers, who assessed the applications assigned to that panel. Each reviewer assessed around 20–25 applications, and each application was evaluated by three reviewers.

Assessment criteria
In this call, four assessment criteria were used. Reviewers applied a grading rubric to assess each application against these criteria (see Appendix A). The grading rubric explains the requirements for each grade level. Grades were assigned on a seven-point scale, where 1 is the lowest score and 7 is the highest.

Priority
In addition to scoring each criterion, reviewers assigned a priority score to each application. This score reflects how competitive the reviewer considered the application in comparison with other applications assessed within the same panel. Priority was assigned on a three-point scale (see Appendix B).

Standardised grades
The dataset also includes standardised grades. Appendix C explains how these grades were calculated and why they are included.