Comment to the Article by van Arensbergen and van den Besselaar ‘The Selection of Scientific Talent in the Allocation of Research Grants’

The article entitled ‘The selection of scientific talent in the allocation of research grants’ by van Arensbergen and van den Besselaar published in Higher Education Policy 25/3 (2012) is based on research that both researchers carried out on behalf of The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research. In this comment, we want to address several conclusions and statements in the article: On which information are evaluations based? Are there no clear boundaries of excellence? What skills are needed in the interview? Is the referee comment important for the decision on an application? And is the assumption that a strong correlation between reviewer scores and committee scores is a measure for the evidence of talent correct?