It’s that time of year again where as one research grant application round is drawing to a close another one is just starting.
Just one week after the Biomedical Research Advisory Panel (BRAP) meet to discuss the outcome of the previous grants round, we expect to receive a number of new applications for our next round. This time last year, we received a whopping 25 applications which is over half the number of projects that we currently fund! So, we are waiting in eager anticipation to see if we break a new record for the number of applications submitted to us, or whether the number will fall back to our ‘normal’ estimates by the deadline of Friday 22 October.
The way that we fund research starts with a summary application stage. A summary is a two-three page outline of the proposed project. After the deadline, a decision is made by our research grants manager as to whether the summary is relevant to ‘classical’ MND and the project aims fit with the Research Strategy: http://www.mndassociation.org/document.rm?id=751, if the summary does not fit in with these then it is rejected. If the criteria are met, then the summary is sent to three members of our BRAP to be reviewed.
When assessing the reviewers’ comments and scores we use a two thirds majority rule. Each reviewer scores the application, if it scores under 50 it is classed as unsuitable for funding, over 50 and we invite the applicant to submit a full application.
This process allows us to ensure we only fund research of the highest quality and of direct relevance to MND.
We’ll keep our fingers crossed for another bumper round and we’ll let you know of the outcome soon of how many applications we’ve received, and how many are invited for full application!
