The criteria against which applications should be assessed directly relates to the core applicant-led mode application questions:
- vision of the project
- approach to the project
- capability of the applicant or applicants and the project team to deliver the project
- resources requested to do the project
- ethical and responsible research and innovation considerations of the project
Some opportunities will have additional questions that reflect their disciplinary specific requirements. Further detail on what assessors should be looking for is available on the relevant funding opportunity page under the ‘how to apply’ section.
The Medical Research Council (MRC) also requires sex to be justified in the experimental design of grant applications involving animals, and human and animal tissues and cells, as part of the sex in experimental design requirement.
MRC’s policy on embedding diversity in research design will apply to applications involving human participants, samples or data, submitted to opportunity deadlines after 1 September 2023.
When undertaking your assessment of the research, you should consider the unequal impacts that COVID-19-related disruption described by the applicants might have had on the research, track record and career development of those individuals included in the application.
Using generative artificial intelligence (AI) in peer review
Assessors, including reviewers and panellists, must:
- not use generative AI tools as part of their assessment activities, except for language refinement purposes
- comply with relevant intellectual property and data protection legislation
- not take into account or speculate within their assessment whether generative AI has been used to develop the application
When using generative AI to refine the language of a review, assessors must ensure that:
- no part of the application being assessed is entered into generative AI
- no personal information from the application is disclosed
- generative AI is not tasked with understanding, summarising or evaluating the application’s content
For more detail see our policy on the use of generative AI.
Last updated: 6 July 2026