1. Access "My Assessments" from Single Entry Point

Log in to the Single Entry Point and select  My Assessments  from the Assessment module. The  My Assessments  screen opens with the  Search Filter  and the  Search results  panels, displaying all your available assignments.

See My Assessments for details on the basic functionalities of this screen. 

2. Filter your assignment(s) and open the expert assignment to work on

Expert assignments requiring your attention will be in status  Assignment Ongoing. 

You can use the available  Search and filter  options to filter the results list according to your needs. In our example, we search for a specific project code for ESC50 and for call year 2022. One result is found. 

To open the assessment, c lick on the hyperlinked Project code , or click  on the  Actions  button in the Actions column and select the option  Open assessment . 

3. The "Assessment details" open

The Assessment Details screen opens in a new tab. Project information is by default selected in the Navigation menu.

4. Specifics of the ESC50 - Quality Label "Assessment Details" screen

4.1. Header specifics

The header in the Assessment Details screen displays basic information about the Quality Label application under assessment. By default, it only shows key details. To expand and view further information, click the available down arrow. 

When you expand the header, using the down arrow, the table displayed for the overview of the assessment criteria shows:

1. Quality role column - displaying the Quality label roles requested and, if applicable, the already existing Quality Label roles for the organisation
   • The requested roles are hyperlinked. Clicking on a hyperlinked role will open the relevant tab in the Award criteria section of the assessment.
   • Existing roles display a green check and are not hyperlinked
2. Expert column(s) - initially empty. Will update automatically as the assessment is completed according to the information and scores provided.  

One column for each expert, consolidator and/or editor involved may become available in this overview table over the course of the assessment cycle.

The content in the expert column updates automatically as the assessment form is filled in.

4.2. "Award Criteria" specifics - Role specific "Award criteria" tabs 

The Quality Label can be requested for the Host and/or Support role. In addition to these, an organisation can also apply for Lead organisation.

When accessing the Award criteria of the assessment, subtabs within the expert specific tab are displayed, one per requested role. During the assessment, you must complete the required information per role within each available subtab. 

If the organisation applies, for example, for Host role and Support role as well as Lead role, the Award criteria show three subtabs that must be completed.

The information for the Host and Support role must be completed first. The Lead role tab only becomes active if the role specific Award criteria are completed and if the result(s) of the role specific Award criteria assessment is positive. A closable warning message displays, informing you of this fact.   

This example shows the available subtabs for an application for Host, Support and Lead role, including the closable warning message that the Lead role tab is disabled.

If the organisation already holds an active Quality Label for a role from a previous year and now applies, as in example below, for Host and Lead role, the tab for the existing role appears greyed out and is marked with a green check, indicating that this role is already awarded to the organisation. This subtab will be inactive and does not have to be completed.

A closable warning message is displayed, informing you of this fact. 

If an organisation applies for only one role and has no Quality Label from a previous year, only one subtab is available for completion. In the example below, only the Host role is requested.

5. Review the documentation of the application in the "Project information" section

When opened from My Assessments, an assessment always displays the  Project Information  by default. The information available here is relevant for the given assignment. 

Available subsections under Project Information include  Application,  Budget information, and Assessments. 

• Application  - contains the pdf version of the application submitted by the beneficiary organisation and all annexes submitted with it and the possibility to view the application form online
• Budget information  - contains information about the budget linked to the project
• Assessments   - only visible for completed expert assignments, as well as in consolidator and editor assignments; contains the pdf versions of already submitted assessments
  • Experts only have access to their own submitted assessment in this section after it was submitted

The following options may be available for the files: 

1. Download each file individually, using the  Download PDF  button, and
2. View as a PDF in your browser, using the See  PDF on line  button
3. View the Application form online, by clicking on the yellow See Application Details button. This option is specific to Application forms.

6. Complete the "Award criteria" section 

Select Award criteria from the Navigation menu. This section contains the criteria to be evaluated for each requested role. 

The  Award criteria  opens on the expert specific tab, in our example Expert 1, and shows the subtabs per requested role. Any other displayed tabs, associated for example to the other expert(s) participating in the assessment of the same project and/or the consolidator, are greyed out. You do not have access to these. 

The available subtabs within the expert tab correlate to the Quality Label role(s) the organisation is applying for and/or already possesses.  In our example, the organisation applies for Host and Support role as well as for the Lead role. 

6.1. Provide "Comments" for Host and/or Support role, if applicable

Different supporting comments must be added in the available  Comments  field in each available subtab for Host and/or Support. All comment fields are mandatory. 

Provide the required information.

6.2. Provide decision per "Award criteria" - "Host" and "Support role" only

The Host and Support roles assessment is not based on points. Instead, each award criterion must be marked as either Acceptable or Not Acceptable.     

Provide a decision for each of the subsections available in the  Award criteria  screen for the Host and/or Support role. This is done using the decision buttons  available in the top right corner of each award criterion.  

• Click on the red X button to declare an award criterion assessment as not acceptable.
• Click on the green check button to declare an award criterion assessment as acceptable.
• If you want to remove an already made decision, click on the blue Deselect option button.

You must select an option (positive or negative) for each award criterion. 

When the decisions for all criteria are made, the relevant subtab updates with the outcome of the evaluation.

The outcome of the decision is only displayed in the subtab if all award criteria have been evaluated as acceptable/not acceptable.  

If applicable, access the next role subtab, in our example Support role. Complete the Award Criteria comments and provide a decision per criterion as explained above.

In our example, the outcome of the assessment for Host and Support role is acceptable, both subtabs display the green check. 

6.3. Specifics for expert that only has to assess Lead role, as result of Site visit to applicant organisation by another expert

If you are the expert instructed to only assess the Lead role, as a result of another expert assigned to assess conducting a Site visit to the applicant organisation, then you should not assess the Host/Support role part of the application.

To enable the Lead role award criteria subtab of the assessment, you must however complete the Host/Support role Award criteria as follows:

• Declare all the award criteria as Acceptable, by clicking on the green check button, and
• Specify in the comments that these award criteria are Not assessed, even if marked as Acceptable.

In this example, Expert 2 was instructed to only assess the Lead role in an ESC50 - Quality Label application assessment for Host and Lead role. For the Lead role tab to become active, Expert 2 filled in all Host role Award criteria comments, stating Not assessed, and declared the outcome for each criterion as Acceptable. 

Only after the Host/Support role Award criteria are completed will the Lead role subtab become active. You can proceed to complete the Lead role Award Criteria as described in the next step. 

6.4. Provide comments and scores for "Lead role", if applicable

Access the Lead role subtab in the Award criteria.

Provide the comments per Award criterion in the same way as explained for the Host and Support role. 

The Lead role assessment and the decision per award criterion are based on numerical scores. 

In our example, the final score is 81. It is displayed in green in the Lead role subtab, indicating the required threshold was reached. For each available criterion, at least 50% of the applicable score was reached. 

6.5. Specifics for completion of "Lead role" subtab by expert that conducted Site visit to applicant organisation as part of Host/Support role assessment

Access the Lead role subtab in the Award criteria. If you have carried out a site visit and/or remote interview during the assessment of the host/support roles and the organisation has also applied for the Lead role, the Lead role subtab must be completed as follows:

• Specify in the available Comments fields that these award criteria are Not assessed: Site visit
• Enter a Score of 0 for all Award criteria in the Lead role subtab

In this example, Expert 1 conducted a site visit and/or remote interview with the applicant organisation during assessment of the Host role. Therefore, the expert will not assess the Lead role part of the application. However, the Lead role subtab must be completed, otherwise the assessment results cannot be submitted. Expert 1 filled in all Award criteria comments, stating Not assessed , and filled in 0 for all Score fields in the Lead role Award criteria subtab. The Lead role subtab displays in red, the with the Total score of 0 displayed. 

In the overview table in the header of the Assessment details, the outcome of the assessment for this role will display Role Not Awarded, even though in this case it is considered as not assessed. 

The overview table in the header will display the assessment outcome for the Lead role as Not Awarded.

6.6. "Award criteria" section complete

When all information is provided in all subtabs,  Award criteria  in the Navigation menu is marked with a green check (1). The table in the header is updated with the outcome of the assessment per role (2).

For Host and/or Support, a green check and the word Awarded displays, indicates the outcome of the assessment for each role as acceptable.

If the organisation applied for Lead role, like in our example, the reached threshold is displayed and, depending on the outcome of the assessment, the Lead role marked as Awarded. 

7. Access and answer "Typology" questions

7.1. Use the radio buttons to answer the available questions

Click on Typology questions in the Navigation menu. 

This section contains a set of questions to be answered using the available radio buttons to select either  Yes, No  or NA, if available. The questions displayed vary depending on the roles the organisation applies for. 

Mandatory questions are marked with a red asterisk  * .

7.2. "Typology questions" section complete

When all mandatory questions are answered, Typology questions  in the Navigation menu is marked with a green check.

8. Complete the "Comments" section

Use the Navigation menu to access the  Comments section.

The  Comments  section of an assessment allows the expert to provide additional commentary for the applicant and/or National Agency. Some comment fields are mandatory. Different comment fields may be available. The following options are possible:

• Comments for the applicant 
• Internal comments for the NA  

Comments that are mandatory are marked with a red asterisk ( *).

The maximum number of characters that can be used per available comment field in the  Comments  section is indicated in the top right corner of the text boxes, for example 5000 characters. The counter updates automatically while you type. If the maximum number of characters has been reached, a red  0  is displayed and no more text can be added. No minimum number of characters is required for the comments fields in the Comments section of the assessment.

The Comment field size will expand automatically while you type.  When all mandatory comments are provided,   Comments  in the Navigation is marked with a green check.

8.1. Specifics for completion of "Comments" section by expert that conducted Site a visit as part of Host/Support role assessment

If you have carried out a site visit and/or remote interview during the assessment of the host/support roles and the organisation also applies for the Lead role, add Site Visit in the comments field under Internal comments for the NA.

9. Indicate if there is a "Conflict of interest" or not

9.1. "I declare absence of conflict of interest"

Click on Conflict of interest in the Navigation . 

If there is no conflict of interest, confirm this by selecting the radio button for  I declare absence of conflict of interest . After you confirm there is no conflict, all menu items in the navigation are marked with a green check, indicating completion.  The  Submit   button becomes active.

9.2. "I declare conflict of interest"

If there is a conflict of interest, you must indicate it by clicking the radio button I declare conflict of interest. This will result in the Submit button not being activated and the assessment results cannot be submitted.  The  Conflict of interest  section in the navigation will not receive the green check. No further action is required.

10. Click the "Submit" button and confirm to submit the assessment results 

After you have completed the assessment, you have to submit the results. 

If no conflict of interest was declared in the previous step and all mandatory information for the assessment is complete, the  Submit  button (1) becomes active. Click on it to submit the assessment results. 

Confirm the submission by clicking on the  Confirm and Submit  button in the pop-up dialogue box (2). A success message (3) displays. 

The expert assessment is completed, all information on screen is greyed out and no more changes are possible. 

In the Project information, the submitted assessment is available as PDF file for download or to view in your browser. 

11. Navigate back to "My Assessments" - Expert assignment completed

Navigate back to My Assessments. 

The status of the assignment is updated to Assignment completed . The Assignment submission date and Conflict of interest columns are filled in with the respective data. 

The columns Decision Lead Role, Decision Host Role, and Decision Support Role display the outcome of your assessment.  If the columns are not displayed, click on the Customise button and select them for your view. See My Assessments for details.  

If you open the assessment again, it opens in a new tab in read-only mode. 

12. ESC50 - Quality Label Consolidation assignment specifics

When working on a consolidator assignment for an ESC50 - Quality Label application, the basic functionalities are the same as described under How to complete a consolidation assignment. The Award criteria section for the assessment of an ESC50 - Quality Label application form will display subtabs per requested role to complete.

If applicable, the subtabs for the Host and/or Support role must be completed first before the Lead role subtab, if available, becomes active for completion.

For the comments to provide under the Award criteria for the requested roles, the consolidator has the option to insert the experts comments, as described under  How to complete a consolidation assignment > Complete Award criteria Comments using the Insert option .

For the Host and/or Support role the consolidator must decide if the outcome of the assessment is acceptable or not acceptable, using the available buttons to the right of each criteria:

• Click on the red x button to declare an award criteria assessment as not acceptable.
• Click on the green check button to declare an award criteria assessment as acceptable.
• If you want to remove an already made decision, click on the blue Deselect option button.

You must select an option (positive or negative) for each award criteria. 

The outcome of the assessment for a role is indicated with a green check in the relevant subtab, if all award criteria were deemed acceptable. A red X displays in the subtab if at least one criterion was deemed not acceptable.

For the Lead role, if applicable, the consolidator must provide scores. When all scores are provided, the calculated total score displays in the Lead role subtab:

• in green, if the required threshold was reached,
• in red if the threshold was not reached

When all Award criteria per requested role are completed, Award criteria in the navigation is marked with a green check.

The assessment overview table in the header is updated with the outcome of the consolidation in the consolidator column. If the organisation applied for the Lead role, the calculated score as per consolidation is displayed. 

In our example, the outcome was positive for the Host and Support role and the threshold for the Lead role was reached. All are marked as Awarded.

12.1. Specifics for consolidation assignments for assessment with conducted Site visit for Host/Support role by one of the experts

In the case where an organisation applied for Host/Support and Lead role and one of the assigned experts conducted a site visit for the assessment of the Host/Support role, the overview table of the assessment outcome per expert in the expanded header will display for this expert in the Lead role row a score of 0/100 and Not Awarded . This expert did not have to assess the Lead role. The expert only added generic comments and a score of 0 for the Lead role specific Award criteria. 

In this example, three experts were assigned to assess the ESC50 - Quality Label application for Host and Lead role. The Lead role row for Expert 1 displays  0/100 and Not Awarded , indicating that this role was not assessed by the expert. 

During the consolidation, when using the Insert functionality upon completion of the Award criteria in a consolidation assignment, take note of the following:

• The Lead role specific Award criteria comments of the expert that conducted a site visit or remote interview during the assessment of the Host/Support role should not be included in the consolidation.
• The Host/Support role specific Award criteria comments of the experts that only assessed the Lead role should not be included in the consolidation.

When inserting the comments of the individual experts in the consolidation, these comments will state Not assessed or Not Assessed: Site visit and can therefore be easily identified.

For example, Expert 1 assessed only the Host role, Expert 2 and Expert 3 assessed only the Lead role. The Award criteria comments of the consolidation should be consolidated as follows:

• Award criteria for Host role: the consolidator will consolidate the comments for the host role from Expert 1. 
• Award criteria for Lead role: the consolidator will consolidate the comments for the lead role from Expert 2 and Expert 3. 

When completing the Comments section in the consolidation assignment, add the Internal Comments for the NA from the expert that conducted the Site visit as part of the assessment of Host/Support role. In our example, the Internal Comments for the NA are the comment as provided by Expert 1, stating Site visit.

13. ESC50 - Quality Label Editor assignment specifics

When working on a editing assignment for an ESC50 - Quality Label application, the basic functionalities are the same as described under How to complete an editing assignment. In an ongoing editing assignment, only the comment fields in the Award Criteria and Comments section can be updated by the expert assigned as Editor. 

In ESC50 - Quality Label applications, the Award criteria will display subtabs per role requested by the applicant organisation. The editor can access the available tabs, Host role, Support role and/or Lead role, and make the required changes in the comment fields available, where required. 

No changes can be made on the outcome (for Host/Support role) or scores (Lead role).