The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge and Culture Awards are decided in two stages. The first involves technical evaluation committees and the second prize juries made up of internationally reputed experts; both acting independently of the other and relying solely on the standards and metrics of excellence proper to the subject area. Responsibility for determining the composition of the technical evaluation committees is shared between the BBVA Foundation and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), which proposes the chair of each prize jury. The BBVA Foundation also confers with the CSIC on the appointment of remaining jury members.