Following the recent spending review settlement the BBSRC has recently announced a number of changes to its grant procedures and processes. A number of demand management measures have been put in place to try and keep the demand for research funding in balance with available funds, and to prevent success rates from falling below the level where peer review functions effectively. To help with this applicants and their institutions are urged to apply proper mentoring and review procedures prior to submission to ensure excessive numbers are not submitted, reducing the number of applications which are not correctly completed or out of the BBSRC’s remit. In addition to this the BBSRC will be bringing in measures to reinforce the importance of ensuring grant holders explore the potential impact of their work. These changes are designed to focus resources in order to meet the ambitions of the strategic plan, The Age of Bioscience – Strategic Plan 2010-2015, which was published last early year. Here is a short summary of the changes:
Disruptions to Services and Deadline Amendments
In March 2011 there will be a substantial change in the management of the BBSRC research grants process with the transfer of most grant processing activity to the RCUK Shared Service Centre in line with other Research Councils. As with the other moves it is expected this will involve temporary disruptions to services necessitating the alteration of some grant closing dates.
The next closing date has been moved back to 25/05/2011 and the one following that will be 25/10/2011.
Changes to the Committee Structure
Beginning with the Summer 2011 round (closing date 25th May 2011) the focus of Committee C will expand from its current focus on tools, technologies and methods to take over primary responsibility for genetics and development. It will retain its focus on STEM proposals however applications in this area will also be considered by other committees if they are clearly relevant to their field of interest.
This change will require a change in chairs and core membership which will be announced on the BBSRC website but also means that technology development expertise is likely to be used more flexibly across the four committees.
Prioritisation
Research proposals that clearly address the research priorities in the Strategic Plan will be prioritised by the Committees. These are food security, bio-energy and industrial biotechnology and basic bioscience underpinning health and wellbeing.
These priority areas are particularly important for grant applications in the area of neuroscience, human psychology and animal behaviour. Due to the current demand from these areas, accounting for 13% at most rounds and sometimes more than 50% of demand at Committee A, the BBSRC will focus its grant commitment to neuroscience in the future through greater concentration of neuroscience funding to the new strategic priority areas.
The strategic priorities for grant applications are currently being revised to reflect the new priorities in the Strategic Plan which will be published on the BBSRC website in the near future. The BBSRC will however continue their existing practise of using highlight notices to indicate areas where proposals will be particularly welcome.
Ensuring the Quality of Proposal and making effective use of peer review effort
As part of the demand management plan the BBSRC are introducing a number of measures to ensure the quality of all proposals. Their update strongly advises all departments submitting grant applications to the BBSRC operate an internal review system to ensure time is not wasted processing and reviewing poor quality proposals. Whilst the BBSRC have said that they do not wish to introduce restrictions on the number of proposals that poorly-performing applicants or institutions can submit they may well need to do so if the volume they have to process becomes disproportionate to the funding available.
All grant applications submitted to the BBSRC will also be given a score by referees on a 1-6 scale to bring processes into line with other Research Councils. This will in future allow lower scoring proposals to be eliminated before the committee meeting to reduce the burden at meetings.
Changes to Standard Procedures
The BBSRC currently receive too many grant applications with faults or errors mainly due to insufficient time left by applicants to thoroughly check their proposal before the deadline. Dealing with these applications reduces the time available to obtain peer review assessments and takes staff away from processing properly completed proposals. To address this the BBSRC are considering withdrawing the privilege of being allowed to correct mistakes from any individual who repeatedly submits faulty applications, or from departments submitting them in significant numbers. If this was to happen corrected proposals would need to be submitted in a subsequent round.
Stricter measures will also mean that in the future if an item of expenditure is considered to be inadequately justified and as a result these items are either deleted or reduced no further correspondence will be entered into. All expenditure should be properly and clearly justified and the offer of an award is not open to negotiation.
Finally, when the use of facilities (Hector, HPC(x) and The Genome Analysis Centre) is required for the proposed work, a Technical Assessment Form must be submitted at the time of application. Applications submitted without the required technical assessment form will not be accepted by BBSRC.
Eligibility, Resubmissions and the BBSRC remit
Up to 10% of grant applications at each round are found to be ineligible. The eligibility guidelines should be carefully read prior to writing a proposal, and in cases of doubt the BBSRC should be consulted.
The BBSRC does not allow the resubmission of unsuccessful grant applications without the specific invitation of the Committee. Proposals submitted on the same topic must be substantially different from pervious submissions and must be accompanied by a letter explaining what these differences are. Applicants are advised to consult with the BBSRC prior to submission regarding any doubt over whether the differences are sufficient.
This rule also applies to applications similar to proposals previously submitted to other UK funders, and applicants are reminded that they must declare such previous submissions.
Applicants are also reminded that applications to the BBSRC must primarily address a problem of basic biological interest or a topic in the BBSRC remit.
Scoring pathways to impact
The Pathways to Impact section of the application will now be given a separate score by committee members which will be taken into account in the rank ordering of proposals and be available in feedback to applicants. This will ensure that impact is given appropriate weighting in the peer review assessment. However, despite the increased emphasis on impact, if an application is otherwise outstanding it will not be rejected solely because of an unsatisfactory Pathways to Impact document without an opportunity to improve it being given.
Refereeing of Grant Applications
It is a requirement of BBSRC grant holders that they are prepared to provide review comments on grant applications to the BBSRC. Grant holders with a poor track record of responding to requests will be unlikely to be invited to join Committees and other bodies involved in developing and delivering BBSRC science. Applicants should keep their Je-S profile up to date to ensure it is correct to avoid requests which are out of their area of expertise.
The Je-S refereeing system will also now be used in replacement of the current BBSRC system where proposals are attached to emails. The Je-S system will send an email referee request which will contain limited information on the proposal which is to be assessed and a link to the Je-S portal where the proposal documents will be held. After logging in to the Je-S system, the referee will be able to view the proposal documents, complete the online reviewer form and upload attachments. The Je-S system also supports the PI response to referees, which is again completed using an online form and document attachments.
Further information about these changes will appear on the BBSRC website as they are implemented, however if you have any queries before then please contact alf.game@bbsrc.ac.uk.