Funding evidence-based medicine

Overview

Project status: In progress

We are researching the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Project Grant peer review scheme and testing alternative schemes that may take less time but be equally accurate.

To test our alternative schemes we need researchers to send us their 2013 Project Grant application.

Read details

Grantor
National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Project Grant
Amount
$308,510
Research leader
Research team
QUT External collaborators

Prof Philip Clarke, The University of Melbourne

Prof John Coveney, Flinders University

Dr Karen Mow, Adjunct Principal Research Fellow, QUT

Organisational unit
Lead unit Faculty of Health Other units
Start date
1st January 2012
End date
31st December 2013
Research area
Health Services
Keywords
Research funding, NHMRC, evidence-based medicine, public health, epidemiology, project grants, grant funding, grant applications, research proposals, grant proposals, health research

Contact

For more information on this project, contact Danielle Herbert.

 

Details

This project is funded by a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Project Grant. The researchers are Associate Professor Adrian Barnett, Prof Nick Graves and Prof Philip Clarke. The project manager is Dr Danielle Herbert.

We are researching the NHMRC Project Grant peer review scheme and testing alternative schemes that may take less time but be equally accurate. To test our alternative schemes we need researchers to send us their 2013 Project Grant application. We also need researchers to be our panel members. This research is independent of the NHMRC, although we are funded by them.

Our alternative panels are a 'short' panel of 12 members who will review a shortened version of the applications, and a journal-style panel of 3 expert 'editors' who will also review the shortened applications. The scores from our alternative panels will be compared with the scores from the standard NHMRC review scheme. Our alternative panels will also consider a more relaxed exclusion criterion for conflicts of interest.

The assessment of the applications by our panels will have no impact on their NHMRC funding outcomes.

Investigator info sheet (PDF file, 436.84 KB)


Panel member info sheet (PDF file, 375.62 KB)

We are also researching the NHMRC Early Career Fellowship (ECF) peer review scheme and the level of agreement between panels reviewing the same application. It is important to understand whether peer-review processes reliably select the best proposals. To test the agreement we are using 'test-retest' panels with assistance from the NHMRC. We need ECF applicants, and your nominated supervisor, to consent to the creation of a duplicate of your 2013 application for review by a second NHMRC peer review panel. You can consent using the NHMRC's Research Grants Management System (RGMS).

Early Career Fellowship (ECF) info sheet (PDF file, 445.05 KB)

Please email Danielle Herbert for more information on our project.

Privacy and confidentiality

The sole role of the NHMRC in this project is as the research funder. The original applications containing personal information that have been submitted to the NHMRC are handled and protected by the NHMRC in accordance with the provisions of the Privacy Act 1988. No unpublished information collected by the NHMRC has been made available to the QUT research team, nor does the QUT research team have any prior knowledge of who has submitted an original application using RGMS in 2013.

Publications and output

Graves, Nicholas, Barnett, Adrian G., & Clarke, Philip (2011) Funding grant proposals for scientific research : retrospective analysis of scores by members of grant review panel. British Medical Journal, 343(sep27 ), d4797.

Graves, Nicholas, Barnett, Adrian G., Herbert, Danielle L, Clarke, Philip (2013) Ideas to improve the selection of NHMRC Project Grants. In NHMRC Evolutions in Peer Review Symposium, 20-21 February 2013, National Convention Centre, Canberra, A.C.T.. (Unpublished)

Herbert, Danielle L, Barnett, Adrian G., Graves, Nicholas (2013) Funding : Australia's grant system wastes time. Nature, 495(7441), p. 314.

Join as a researcher

We're looking for researchers to send us their 2013 Project Grant applications.

Contact Danielle Herbert to get involved.