The review boards have the option of dividing into sections or joining together to form expert forums that enable each proposal to the DFG to be assessed in an expediently comparative manner. This ensures that the required subject-related expertise can be included in an assessment.

Sections

Sections consist of some of the members of one or more review boards. Sections can be established across, or internally within review boards. Members in sections that span several review boards additionally participate in their main review board. These sections are formed to enable comparative assessment of proposals in certain funding programmes that extend beyond review board boundaries.

Sections within a single review board can be formed according to the subject areas of the participating review board or independently of subject structure. Their members may also represent all or almost all subjects of a review board. They are formed in the case of very extensive review boards to create an operational subunit for the assessment.

The following sections exist:

Cross-board sections

• Cross-board Section Long-Term Projects in the Humanities and Social Sciences
• Cross-board Section for Emmy Noether proposals in Physics
• Cross-board Section for Emmy Noether proposals in Chemistry

Internal sections

Expert forums

An expert forum is a form of organisation in which all members of several review boards come together to form an evaluation committee in order to perform their tasks. This option is primarily used in the case of smaller review boards to create sufficient comparative capacity for the assessment.

The following expert forums have been established:

• Expert Forum Chemistry 1 (Review Boards 3.12, 3.13, 3.14 and 3.16)
• Expert Forum Chemistry 2 (Review Boards 3.11, 3.15 and 3.17)
• Expert Forum Physics 1 (Review Boards 3.21 and 3.22)
• Expert Forum Physics 2 (Review Boards 3.23, 3.24 and 3.25)
• Expert Forum Physics (Review Boards 3.21, 3.22, 3.23, 3.24 und 3.25)
• Expert Forum GEO-1 (Review Boards 3.42, 3.43 and 3.44)
• Expert Forum GEO-2 (Review Boards 3.41, 3.45 and 3.46)
• Expert Forum of Review Boards 4.21 and 4.22
• Expert Forum Materials Science and Materials Engineering (Review Boards 4.31 and 4.32)