It is possible both for organisations to register their key staff, and for researchers to register individually. The project FRENZ which shall facilitate the cooperation between researchers from the EU and New Zealand has compiled the following text to guide potential applicants through the process. As it is very comprehensive, we copy it here for your information:

"You will normally fall into one of the following categories:

• you may have already registered for FP7
• you may have registered as an expert for FP6
• this process is completely new to you

The process for each category is described below. However, in all cases, the URL that you will require is https://cordis.europa.eu/emmfp7/.
 
Please remember that being registered as an expert in no way prevents you from being involved with any proposal or project in the Framework Programme. At each opportunity to evaluate, you will be asked to declare any conflict of interest with the proposals that you might evaluate. Should you declare such conflict, this may result in the withdrawal of the opportunity to evaluate in that call, or may just exclude you from evaluating for the specific topic with which you are involved.
 
Also, please be assured that although the EC does provide details on the evaluators used in each theme and in each year, the data provided is at a very general level (name, gender, nationality, organisation, and organisation type). It should not be possible for any researcher to link you, with any certainty, to the evaluation of their proposal.
 

Already Registered for FP7

You need not do anything further, although you may choose to update your information. This should take less than 15 minutes. Please ensure that you have the correct password and username as entering a wrong password three times will block your account.
 
If you click on the ‘View the CV’ option (button 10), this will give you an overview of the information currently held in your profile to help you identify those areas that you might choose to update.
 

Registered for FP6

Whilst your details will have been carried over from FP6 to FP7, it is likely that it will be somewhat out of date and, in any event, will need to be restructured to provide a better fit with the FP7 themes. Your FP6 password and username will still be valid, but please ensure that you have the correct password and username as entering a wrong password three times will block your account.
 
At a minimum, you will have to revise your content in sections 2 (Type of expert) and 5 (Activities and Keywords). However, it is recommended that you should update all other fields. It is likely that this update will take from 15-30 minutes, depending on the time that has passed since you last updated your profile (which could be anything from 2 to 6 years!).
 
If you click on the ‘View the CV’ option (button 10), this will give you an overview of the information currently held in your profile to help you identify those areas that you might choose to update.
 
 

New registration

At the page https://cordis.europa.eu/emmfp7/, you should select the link for new expert in the Register box. This will take you to a brief registration form to provide your contact details and establish your username and password. Once you have these, you will be able to access the Expert Management Module (EMM) proper.
 
The system is split into 9 sections:
1. Username and password
2. Type of Expert
3. Personal Details
4. Linguistic Skills
5. Activities and Keywords
6. Educational background
7. Experience
8. Employment History
9. Interests
 
Each section has its own page which must be completed and saved separately. To get back to the overview, you may either press the ‘save and return’ button, or else ‘save’ and then ‘cancel’.
 
At this point, you will need to complete all sections in order that an overview CV can be developed that fits the EC template. i.e., information from each of the sections is extracted by the system to deliver to the EC a standard CV of interests and experience in the Framework Programme for all registrants. There is the opportunity to link to your own CV through an external URL. However, this will not be sufficient to complete registration. I’m afraid that the info in your CV needs to be cut and pasted into the various sections of the EC form instead.
 
Experience of this process suggests that the full registration can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on how compatible your CV is with the EC template. It doesn’t have to be completed in one go – please remember to save each page as you input the information – but the registration is not valid until all mandatory fields are completed. Unfortunately, most of the fields are mandatory.
 
If you are fortunate enough to have some administrative assistance, my suggestion would be to have someone else input the basics, and then go through personally to ensure that all fields are adequately completed. If you are not so fortunate, please look on the time spent here as an investment since there is the possibility that you will be invited to evaluate at some point between now and 2013, and this can involve a trip to Brussels that will allow you to rekindle friendships and forge new relationships that may underpin future collaborative actions.

If you click on the ‘View the CV’ option (button 10), this will give you an overview of the information in your profile to help you identify which areas require any further changes.
 

...
 

What does ‘being an expert’ entail?

Once you are registered in the pool of experts, the EC can select you as an evaluator for FP7 proposals, as an expert advisor on a new or current project, or for the monitoring and evaluation of the Framework Programme. Normally, though, the focus is on proposal evaluation.

In general, proposals are evaluated remotely in the first instance. Typically, this would be followed by a consensus meeting of the evaluators in Europe: either Brussels or Luxembourg. Although it is possible to be used as an evaluator to be selected for 2-3 trip (up to a maximum of 10 days), it is unusual to be selected more than 1 time in any year. The number of proposals to be evaluated will depend on the type and complexity of the activity, since this normally has a bearing on the number of proposals submitted.

Example 1: a large scale integrated project in one of the Cooperation themes would aim to bring together the main groups around Europe that are engaged in that topic. This means that there will be only a small number of groupings, and so a small number of proposals. In addition, the complex nature of these projects mean that they are time consuming to evaluate. Therefore, it would be normal to expect only a small number of such proposals for evaluation.

Example 2: Marie Curie Fellowship proposals are grouped into quite broad sub-themes at evaluation. These proposals are limited to 25 pages, are fairly standard in their layout, and tend to be reasonably simple to evaluate. As a consequence, evaluators may be given 10 to evaluate.

An agreement is made between the researcher (at an individual level) and the European Commission for that specific evaluation. Reimbursement is made as an ex gratia payment or honorarium, and would normally cover the travel costs plus  450 euros per day.

Although this cost may not cover your salary ‘day rate’, the cost reimbursed should be seen in the context of the opportunity that arises from participation. As an evaluator:

• you are in the room with other excellent researchers broadly connected to your field of research;
• you are looking through proposals involving excellent research from top groups around Europe;
• you get to see, from the inside, what makes an excellent proposal;
• and you potentially have direct contact with the EC project officer who writes the calls for proposals in your field.

This could clearly be seen as the EC paying you to meet with and review the activities of potential collaborators, to come to Europe an – if time permits – connect with new or existing contact in Europe to build new project ideas!

Click here to download this information as a PDF.

Register as an evaluator: you need to be in to win!   

Source of information: FRENZ http://www.frenz.org.nz/framework_ecexpert.html