Moreover, in the applicant’s view, the inadequate number of permanent members of the selection board, and the significant alterations in the composition of the selection board were not offset by the permanent presence of the selection board’s chairman or vice-chairman.

Thus, Article 30 of the Staff Regulations and Article 3 of Annex III to the Staff Regulations provide, first, that for each competition a selection board is to be appointed by the appointing authority; second, that, apart from the chairman of the selection board, the members must be designated in equal numbers by the appointing authority and the Staff Committee; third, that the members of the selection board must be chosen from officials; fourth, that the members of the selection board must be of a function group and grade at least equal to that of the post to be filled; and, fifth, that if a selection board consists of more than fou ...[+++]r members it must comprise at least two members of each gender (judgment of 15 June 2010 in Case F‑35/08 Pachtitis v Commission, paragraphs 53 and 54).

For the Descartes Research Prize, the Grand Jury, chaired by Ene Ergma, Vice President of the Academy of Sciences of Estonia and President of the Estonian Parliament, chose five laureates from a highly competitive field of 85 entries.

The nominated projects will now be evaluated by the Descartes Grand Jury, comprised of renowned personalities from various academic disciplines, industrial and public life and is chaired by Prof. Ene Ergma, Vice-president of the Estonian Academy of Sciences and Chairperson of the Estonian Parliament.

The 2004 winners were chosen by a six member Grand Jury chaired by Professor Gerard ‘t Hooft, Dutch Nobel Prize winner for Physics in 1999.

The final recommendations of candidates for the Awards were made by the Marie Curie Grand Jury, an international panel of 6 members under the Chairmanship of Professor Hélène Langevin-Joliot, a prominent French physicist and granddaughter of Marie Curie.