When expert, external advice is needed by faculty who are preparing major grant proposals, funds have been set aside to help faculty members obtain external reviews of their draft proposals. This policy outlines the procedure for requesting an external peer review from the Office for Nursing Research. Please see the separate policy on “Internal Peer Reviews” for details on the procedure for requesting an internal review by other UI faculty.
Eligibility. Only grant applications seeking $150,000 or more in direct costs to sponsors that also provide F&A costs will be eligible. PI’s must be CON faculty members or postdocs. Note: External reviewers cannot be a current member of the panel that will review the proposal.
Honoraria. $250 will be paid to external reviewers who provide a written critique of a draft proposal prior to its submission. $350 will be paid to external reviewers who provide a written critique and are present for the peer review session by phone.
Limits. Only one external reviewer is permitted for each proposal.
Format. Peer reviews will be scheduled no later than 5 weeks before the sponsor’s deadline. A peer review session takes 2 hours and is attended by the PI, 2-3 reviewers, and the ONR Director. The PI may also wish to have collaborators attend. The session is recorded using SmartPen technology so that both written comments and an audio recording of the entire session can be made available to the PI.
Procedure. Beginning 10 weeks before the sponsor’s deadline, PI’s should email the ONR Director to request an external review. In the email, the PI should provide relevant information about the proposal, including:
9 weeks prior to Proposal Due Date. The PI provides the ONR with the Name and Contact Information of the prospective reviewer (institution, department, mailing address, phone number and email). At this point, the PI will also forward the current draft of the 1-page Specific Aims to the ONR Director.
8 weeks prior to Proposal Due Date. If the Specific Aims are judged to be in reviewable condition, the request for review will be approved and the ONR will begin the process of contacting the reviewer and soliciting a commitment to read the proposal. Please note that the expert cannot be a current member of the panel that will review the proposal.
The ONR will contact the prospective reviewer. If the External Reviewer agrees to review the full proposal, the ONR will then obtain needed information for honorarium payments.
6 weeks prior to Proposal Due Date. Faculty member provides a full draft proposal (electronic) to the ONR Director. If the proposal draft is judged to be reviewable condition, it will be sent to all reviewers (internal and external). Appropriate institutional paperwork for honorarium payment must be obtained by this date.
5 weeks prior to Proposal Due Date. Peer review is held (with or without presence of External Reviewer). External reviewer must return critique to faculty member (and copy to the ONR). Honorarium check is then mailed.
Assignment of reviewers. The ONR Director helps to identify potential reviewers and coordinates scheduling of the review.
Lead time for review materials. PI’s must send their proposal draft to the ONR Director at least 1 week before the scheduled date of the review. PI’s who do not provide their reviewers with sufficient lead time to review the materials, the review session may be canceled or rescheduled.