(i) All UKF programs share general criteria and all accepted projects have to confer those criteria. Those criteria should serve to potential users when designing the project proposal. They should also serve to evaluators in assessment of proposals, and should enable them to assess the proposal both by a quantitative mark and descriptively.

(ii) A special set of criteria is provided by the Steering Committee for each program and is highlighted in Calls for proposals. The evaluators will use the unique set of criteria within one call to assess all proposals on a quantitative basis (with marks). SC decides independently which relative importance it would assign to which criteria and in accordance with the general mark (obtained by incorporating all criteria) recommends projects which should receive financial support.

(iii) Programs of the Unity through knowledge Fund are sets of financed projects that include one or more Fund’s instruments, defined by the Steering Committee. The Steering Committee defines the goal and set out the reasons for launching, duration and financial framework of the program. The Fund’s resources can be assigned solely through programs, with the exception of operational costs and institutional development as specified in UKF Business Plan.

(iv) Projects within a certain program are selected on a public call for proposals and in accordance with the procedures described here. For each program, the following is defined ahead of time: common goal, common set of criteria, the same application conditions and same selection procedure. All projects within the program are evaluated with the same measurable key performance indicators.

(v) A general overview of programs is presented here. Their financial volumes, dynamics of announcements of calls for grants and other details are going to be specified by the SC during the development of particular program. The projection of costs of each particular program is outlined in Chapter 12 of this document. 

(vi) Projects are evaluated according to sets of criteria which are common to each program. They are developed by the SC according to the goals of a particular program. Nevertheless, there exisits a general set of criteria that will be used in all programs:
·    assessment of scientific/technological quality and innovativeness of research, originality and feasibility of project
·    scientific track record of project leader and other coworkers on the project, their research and management potential (key publications and other results, necessary expertise, previous achievements, cooperation)
·    strategic importance of the project for Croatian society and economy (in the sense of Science and Technology Policy 2006-2010)
·    assessment of the project’s future potential to achieve EU/international co-financing
·    assessment of the project’s future potential to achieve co-funding from industry (for commercial-domain projects)
·    assessment of the project’s potential for creating added values in Croatian economy (potential applications, innovations, patents, new products or processes…)
·    guarantee for the co-funding of project if required in the program
·    potential contribution to knowledge transfer to Croatia contributed by project
These and other specified criteria will be assessed quantitatively by the evaluators and the SC.