National Research Foundation ratings

Rating main categories are A, B, C, P, Y and L. The concise characteristics of the different categories are given as excerpts from the National Research Foundation .

A Rated Researcher

Researchers who are unequivocally recognised by their peers as leading international scholars in their field for high quality and impact of their recent research outputs.

• A1 Rated Researcher

A researcher in this group is recognised by all reviewers as a leading scholar in his/her field internationally for the high quality and wide impact (i.e. beyond a narrow field of specialisation) of his/her recent research outputs.

• A2 Rated Researcher

A researcher in this group is recognised by the overriding majority of reviewers as a leading scholar in his/her field internationally for the high quality and impact(either wide or confined) of his/her recent research outputs.

B Rated Researcher

Researchers who enjoy considerable international recognition by their peers for the high quality and impact of their recent research outputs.

• B1 Rated Researcher

All reviewers concur that the applicant enjoys considerable international recognition for the high quality and impact of his/her recent research outputs, with some of them indicating that he/she is a leading international scholar in the field.

• B2 Rated Researcher

All or the overriding majority of reviewers are firmly convinced that the applicant enjoys considerable international recognition for the high quality and impact of his/her research outputs.

• B3 Rated Researcher

Most of the reviewers are convinced that the applicant enjoys considerable international recognition for the high quality and impact of his/her recent research outputs.

C Rated Researcher

Established researchers with a sustained recent record of productivity in the field who are recognised by their peers as having:

1. produced a body of quality work, the core of which has coherence and attests to ongoing engagement with the field;
2. demonstrated the ability to conceptualise problems and apply research methods to investigating them.

• C1 Rated Researcher

While all reviewers concur that the applicant is an established researcher (as described), some of them indicate that he/she already enjoys considerable international recognition for his/her high quality recent research outputs

• C2 Rated Researcher

All or the overriding majority of reviewers are firmly convinced that the applicant is an established researcher (as described).

• C3 rated researchers

 Most of the reviewers concur that the applicant is an established researcher (as described).

L Rated Researcher

Persons who were previously established as researchers or who previously demonstrated potential through their own research products, and who are considered capable of fully established or re-establishing themselves as researchers within a five-year period after evaluation.