Policy statement
UKRI’s vision is to fund the best people, ideas and infrastructure. To do this, UKRI has adopted a set of eight principles based on the Global Research Council’s principles on peer-merit review, which will govern UKRI’s assessment and decision-making process for competitive funding opportunities.
These principles will be applied to all UKRI competitive funding opportunities to ensure a consistent, high-quality approach based on globally recognised best practice.
Purpose
This policy sets out a series of high-level principles, which provide a best practice framework for UKRI competitive funding opportunities.
It sets out the principles of how UKRI makes decisions on competitive funding opportunities that go through the assessment process, providing transparency to applicants.
Scope
The policy covers all competitive funding opportunities delivered by the seven UKRI disciplinary councils that go through an assessment process, for example expert review or a panel.
The policy does not cover funding decisions made through algorithms or where there is no element of direct competition with other applicants.
All UKRI competitive funding opportunities must be able to demonstrate how they meet the principles in this policy, or where there is a justified reason for a different approach.
Where a funding opportunity is co-funded with an external partner, such as a charity, international organisation or government department, UKRI will work together with the respective partner. We will agree an approach which maintains the globally recognised standards of funding and assessment encapsulated by the principles described in this policy.
Definitions
Funding opportunity
This is an opportunity for applicants to submit an application for funding to carry out and deliver research and innovation activities within the diversity of UKRI’s portfolio.
Assessment
This is the process undertaken to determine the quality of an application based on how well it addresses the assessment criteria. Assessment can have different forms, including review and panel.
Assessment criteria
The published criteria which an application will be assessed against to make recommendations for funding.
Assessor
An assessor evaluates the individual merit of an application against published assessment criteria. They must be able to provide an appropriate and relevant assessment. Assessors can be from:
- business
- academia
- a non-academic body, such as the public sector or a charity
- the general public
Reviewers
A reviewer is an assessor who has the expertise in the relevant research and innovation field to provide a detailed assessment of an application. A reviewer can be from academia, non-academia or business, including the general public, and can provide the relevant expertise on all or part of an application.
Review
A review:
- involves the assessment of an application independently of other applications
- is based on the reviewer’s judgement of the assessment criteria alone
- does not normally benchmark the assessment against other applications of the funding opportunity
Panellists
A panellist is an assessor who has been invited to sit as a member of the panel. They must have relevant experience and expertise from one of the following:
- academia
- business
- another relevant body such as the public sector or a charity
Panellists can also include the general public.
Panel
A meeting where the assessment of an application is carried out collectively against the assessment criteria and with other panellists. Its main aim is to rank or categorise applications in priority for funding, or to progress in the assessment process.
Councils
The seven disciplinary research councils, Research England and Innovate UK which are part of UKRI.
Responsibilities
UKRI is responsible for ensuring that all UKRI competitive funding opportunities meet the following principles.
Expert assessment
Collectively, assessors should have the appropriate knowledge and expertise to assess the application.
UKRI will:
- ensure that all reviewers have appropriate knowledge, expertise or experience in the relevant field to review an application
- use a diverse range of experts to provide assessments
- appoint panellists who have the appropriate range of expertise, experience and knowledge to carry out assessments, which includes expertise for cross-disciplinary applications
- provide clear, tailored funding opportunity guidance to all assessors before they undertake review of applications
Panellists will be provided with additional materials to ensure they can carry out an appropriate assessment.
Transparency
When a funding opportunity is advertised, UKRI must ensure the following are made available and accessible to all users and the public:
- the approach for the assessment of the application
- the assessment criteria
- information on how funding outcomes are communicated
UKRI will publish guidelines, the assessment criteria and details of the assessment process for all funding opportunities prior to the submission of applications.
Where appropriate, and where the assessment approach for a funding opportunity allows, UKRI will provide applicants with an opportunity to see and respond to any anonymised reviewer comments gathered.
UKRI will also:
- inform applicants of the outcome of their application within a reasonable timeframe once the final funding decision is made
- ensure feedback is provided relevant to the assessment approaches that have been used, and this will be provided within a reasonable timeframe once the outcome of their application has been communicated
- publish the names of panellists for all funding opportunities within a reasonable timeframe once the funding decision has been made and communicated
- not normally disclose information about the identity of reviewers of specific applications to protect the provision of free and frank comments and advice, but information about reviewers (such as peer review college membership or aggregate data) may be published
- publish the outcome of applications for all competitive funding opportunities within a reasonable timeframe after making the final funding decision
Details of funded applications will be published in a searchable format on a publicly available website.
Impartiality
The assessment of applications must be fair, and sources of biases should be recognised and mitigated.
UKRI will:
- ensure all assessors are informed on safeguarding the decision-making process and the importance of making fair and objective decisions before panel assessments take place
- provide guidance to both our office administrators and panellists to promote fairness and objectivity in assessment and funding decisions
- have processes to identify and manage reviewer, panellist and staff conflicts of interest, and any conflicts of interest that are identified will be managed in line with UKRI’s declaration of interest policy
- provide guidance to applicants, reviewers and panellists to assist them in determining whether they deem themselves conflicted on an application or within the assessment process
- provide guidance to our office administrators and panellists on the ways to manage conflicts of interest and how they are expected to conduct themselves
Appropriateness
The assessment of applications must use a process that considers both the aims and objectives of the funding opportunity, and the time and resource required to provide the most appropriate approach to enable the best funding decisions.
UKRI will:
- use a set of tools, enabling an assessment approach that is appropriate for the complexity and funding level of the proposed research and innovation funding opportunity
- ensure the information and data required to support an effective assessment of an application, its funding decision and post decision management of successful applications, are collected appropriately and at the appropriate time
- support the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) and recognises the relationship between research assessment and research integrity
UKRI will not use journal-based metrics, such as journal impact factors, as a surrogate measure of the quality of individual research articles, to assess an individual researcher’s contributions, or to make funding decisions.
In alignment with the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA), UKRI recognises the diversity of contributions to, and careers in, research in accordance with the needs and nature of the research.
Confidentiality
Confidentiality in the assessment process must be maintained to protect the applicant’s:
- ideas
- intellectual properties
- confidential, commercially sensitive and personal data
UKRI will:
- instruct, and expects, all individuals and organisations involved in the assessment process, to treat in confidence all applications and related data including intellectual property and application documents
- provide guidance on confidentiality prior to the assessor undertaking the assessment process
- comply with relevant data protection legislation on all data received as part of the application and assessment process
- ensure the identity of reviewers is only known to UKRI administrators and is kept anonymous to the applicant to allow the provision of free and frank comments and advice, but where it is deemed necessary for the assessment, panellists may know the identity of the reviewer in the panel assessment
- instruct reviewers not to inadvertently identify themselves in the text of the assessment and request that they do not directly or indirectly discuss their involvement in reviewing with others including on social media platforms
Integrity and ethics
Applicants, assessors, organisations and the public must have trust that assessment and funding decisions are being conducted in a responsible manner, ensuring the processes in place both promote and safeguard the public value of research and innovation.
UKRI:
- will make funding decisions that are based on evidence and rigorous analysis
- will provide resource for assessors and applicants on research ethics and good conduct through the published UKRI policy and guidelines on governance of good research conduct and other information available on the UKRI good research resource hub
- expects all assessors to understand and adhere to the core values of the Concordat to Support Research Integrity, taking these into account when undertaking their assessments
- will ensure the core values of the Concordat to Support Research Integrity are taken into consideration when making its funding decisions
- will provide a supportive and open environment for its assessors and staff to be able to work with due respect for one another
- expects all recipients of funding to work within the best practices and policies relating to trusted research
Equality, diversity and inclusion
Assessment and decision-making should drive a culture of equality, diversity and inclusion, providing the best opportunities where individuals and teams of people from all backgrounds can thrive.
UKRI’s assessment process will reduce biases against those with protected characteristics, demonstrating our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion.
Protected characteristics covered by UK law are:
- age
- disability
- gender reassignment
- marriage and civil partnership
- pregnancy and maternity
- race
- religion or belief
- sex and sexual orientation
UKRI will:
- conduct equality impact assessments for all new funding opportunities to identify the impacts, both positive and negative, and the steps to mitigate these
- have a transparent and robust process for selecting panellists and reviewers, utilising the talent and resources offered by assessors from underrepresented groups from their discipline
- collect and make publicly available equality, diversity and inclusion data on research funding as well as funding by regional distribution which includes quality-related research funding
Separation of duties
The assessment of an application should be undertaken by assessors with the appropriate expertise in a separate process from the final funding decision.
UKRI will ensure that funding decisions on individual applications are taken following an independent assessment of their quality.
UKRI staff or staff from co-funders with the appropriate expertise may act as assessors. However, the final funding decisions must be made independently by other UKRI staff with the relevant delegated authority.