Peer Review benchmarking

Background

Research Councils have developed a benchmarking process to support the continuous improvement and sharing of good practice within the Research Councils peer review processes. The project has produced a description of the features of an "ideal" peer review process as a benchmark, a model framework to guide the benchmarking process and a description of the process itself.

The Process

Full details of the process are given in the paper: Peer Review Benchmarking of Grant Review in the UK Research Councils. In summary, the model includes the key features of a peer review process which would meet public service principles. These are:

• linkage to Research Council mission;
• management across the interface;
• stakeholder involvement;
• transparency;
• quality management;
• fairness;
• competitiveness;
• resource utilisation;
• management of process improvement.

The Research Council being benchmarked conducts a self-assessment exercise against these features and the results are evaluated by an independent panel.

The advantage of this process is that the criteria for assessment are generic, enabling the various Councils to measure their effectiveness against these criteria, without dictating what process should be in place to deliver effective peer review. This enables each Council to maintain a process which best fits with its mission and its research community.

NERC agreed to act as the pilot for this process and the Council was benchmarked at the end of 2002. The exercise was deemed useful both in terms of informing NERC about the strengths and weaknesses of its processes as well as demonstrating the feasibility of the approach. EPSRC was reviewed in 2004 and the report submitted that Autumn. The report and the EPSRC response was published in June 2005.

The timetable for the review of the other Councils is:

Further information:
EPSRC has agreed to manage the process on behalf of all the Councils, so for further information please contact the Project Officer: Michaela Simpson