Project Grant Competition
Part 4: Committee Member Roles

Title

Welcome to this learning module in the Project Grant competition series: Part 4: Committee Member Roles. In this module, reviewers will learn about the roles of committee members to ensure they feel prepared to effectively participate in the peer review process.

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Committee Member Roles

In this section, you will learn about the roles and responsibilities of committee members.

Reviewer

Reviewers are committee members assigned to review one or more applications. Applications are assigned to three reviewers, who participate in the rating of applications and submit in-depth written reports that are provided to the applicants. They share a summary of their review at the committee meeting where they lead the discussion and vote during the meeting. They also participate in the committee discussion and rating of all applications for which they are not in conflict.

Committee Chair

Before the committee meeting, the Chair works with the Scientific Officers and CIHR staff to assign applications to specific peer review committees and to select reviewers for each application.

At the committee meeting and in the role of moderator, it is the Chair's responsibility to ensure that the review committee functions smoothly, effectively and objectively, and that a positive, constructive, fair- minded environment in which research proposals are evaluated is established and maintained.

At the end of the committee meeting, the Chair can revisit applications for which the committee members deem that additional discussion is warranted. They can also allow time to receive feedback from the committee members regarding the effectiveness and functioning of the committee.

Scientific Officer

Individuals serving the role of Scientific Officer (SO) at a committee meeting are responsible for supporting the Chair in their role during the review committee meeting and are expected to follow a clear set of general instructions as defined by CIHR.

At the committee meeting, the Scientific Officer takes official notes of the committee discussions for each application. These are referred to as the SO notes. The SO notes will be read back to the committee for validation and for additional input before a consensus rating on the application is reached by the assigned reviewers, and all the members' votes are cast. If applicable, the SO notes are sent to applicants along with the reviewer reports.

Additional Resources

The resources listed on screen will provide you with additional details to prepare you for reviewing applications in the Project Grant competition. Before concluding this module, please complete the survey to assist CIHR in tracking the uptake and improving the quality of the learning.

You may choose to exit the module and return to the learning page or continue to the next part of the Project Grant competition series, Part 5: Sex and Gender-Based Analysis.

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