2011 Systems Science Grantsmanship Workshop

USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculturein cooperation with

University of Tennessee AgResearch

Prior Workshops

The Grant Process:Application, Review, and Award

Daniel Schmoldt

The Application Process

Application e-CorrespondenceAfter an application package is submitted, the AR will receive a series of four e-mails. The titles of the four e-mails are:

Application e-Correspondence

If accepted for peer review, the application will be assigned a NIFA application number (e.g., YEAR-XXXXX). This number should be cited on all future

correspondence.

And, there’s one more…

The Review Process

The first part of the process is the administrative review– A main focus of the administrative

review is to facilitate the peer reviewThe second part of the process is a

peer review

Administrative Review

The Peer-Review Process

Reviewers for a particular year are selected based on the types of applications that are submitted– All panelists are considered experts in their

fields– Panelists can include: academia, federal labs,

NGOs, industry, technology providers– Around 30 % of the panelists are from the

previous year– A number of diversity criteria are applied

before invitations are sent

The Peer-Review Process

Each application must be reviewed by at least 3 external reviewers– Panelists are generally assigned 10 to

20 applications to review– Reviewers are provided with the RFA

and the evaluation criteria– Applications that don’t adhere to the

guidelines and criteria are not likely to be funded

The Peer-Review Process

The Award Process

The Award Process