Illustration of a method for selecting research grant applications

Area of Science:

• Medical research funding
• Health sciences grant evaluation

Background:

• Grant funding decisions require explicit, consistent, and fair methods, especially for diverse or controversial research.
• Limited funding necessitates rigorous application selection processes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate a method for improving grant application selection.
• To ensure fairness and consistency in funding decisions for alternative therapies.

Main Methods:

• Utilized Judgment Analysis (JA) to assist an expert committee in selecting grant applications.
• Established explicit standards (relevance, methodological adequacy) and determined individual expert weights.
• Applied a common policy derived from explicit standards to fund projects.

Main Results:

• Reviewed 219 grant applications for alternative therapies.
• Funded 17 projects based on the established evaluation criteria.

Conclusions:

• Judgment Analysis was acceptable to a multidisciplinary expert committee.
• The JA method was found to be understandable and easy to implement for grant selection.