Chapter 10: Time as a Judgment Device: How Time Matters When Reviewers Assess Applicants for ERC Starting and Consolidator Grants

In this chapter, I present exploratory research into how time matters in peer review processes for research funding. I do this by focusing on two interacting temporal aspects of peer review: the temporal organization of review processes and the use of temporal categories as judgment devices (Dekker, 2016; Karpik, 2010) during the review process. I trace how the temporal organization of the review process, particularly the temporal frame set for reviewers to complete their review activities, encourages specific usages of temporal categories when reviewers assess the quality of research proposals. This connection between what I call “review time” and “time as a judgment device” becomes particularly palpable when reviewers assess the qualification profiles of candidates, which will be the focus of this chapter. In my specific case – peer review for Starting and Consolidator Grants at the European Research Council (ERC) – the qualification profiles of the applicants are of equal importance for funding success as the project ideas and designs. The ERC, a highly influential funding body in Europe, thereby offers an example of a growing trend in research funding in Europe and beyond toward person-centered research funding, that is, toward research funding that explicitly aims to support particularly excellent researchers and not only particularly excellent research. In this explorative chapter, I trace how the temporalities of peer review, among other factors, co-shape who comes to count as an excellent researcher in ERC peer review processes.