Introduction

The role of the SRP is to evaluate the Exploratory / Developmental grant applications and recommend a list for funding to the NMRC Board. There will be two SRPs consisting of about 20 members each, with two co-chairs per SRP. Ad-hoc members, from a pool of SRP ad-hoc members, may be invited to specific meetings to assess certain proposals where there are gaps in domain knowledge.

Peer Review Process of the Exploratory / Developmental Grant Applications

The SRP review process is similar to LRP, with the exclusion of external peer review. The SRP members are tasked to review the proposals either as primary or secondary reviewers.

Proposals are categorised into two categories (i) Exploratory / Developmental Grant (ii) New Investigator Grant. The two SRPs will review these two groups separately and shortlist proposals for funding by NMRC. The NMRC Board will allocate the funding for each of the 2 categories.

Proposals will be ranked based on the reviewers' score and a shortlist will be generated based on the following criteria:

• Proposals with a mean score (from both primary and secondary reviewers) of 3.0 and below will not be considered for discussion, and/ or
• Proposals below the 50% ranking based on the mean scores

The above criteria applies with exception to the following:

• When the score differential between the primary and secondary reviewers is more than 1.0
• The proposal has only one reviewer
• A SRP member wishes to flag a proposal for discussion (at the meeting)