There is no doubt in saying that being a committee member is an absolute privilege because you
have the chance to study through and be exposed to the high quality science that is proposed
and generated in the United Kingdom.
Having had grant money awarded to myself I thought it was time that I paid back and provided
a service to BBSRC, to the public and the taxpayer, it’s their money that’s funding
our science.
I’m also quite passionate of ensuring that excellent grants get funded.
For our company it was a chance to put something back and interact with people who are actually
our customers.
I wanted to know what happened at the other side, I applied for grants, I get some, I
don’t get others, and what is it that makes a grant.
Introducing members role is really to look at the detail of the science which is proposed,
is to evaluate the expert peer reviews that come into us externally on an application,
and to balance all of those things with their own experience and their own expertise, and
then reporting that to the committee as a whole.
Well, being a really busy academic the first thing to do is to block time in my diary.
You finish reading all the papers associated with the grant, the reviewer’s comment,
the rebuttal to the reviewers’ comments, and you then generate a score, which you’ll
then give to the grant and bring that to the meeting and that will get discussed with all
of the other grants.
It’s just to make sure that you’ve done the ground work to give that grant the best
and fairest shot at getting a fair hearing at the meeting, because I would expect the
committee members to do that if they had my grant in their hands, so I feel I should do
the same back.
So to get my points heard during the meeting, I make sure I stick to the point and am very
succinct, and if I’m really passionate about something you stick there and argue your case.
For those grants I have to know, if we spent the money on them, what science would we be
getting as a return for our investment?
What are the strengths of the grant?
What are the weaknesses?
What factors have to led to me coming up with that particular score.
So I use a variety of skills and techniques during the panel meetings.
The primary one is to listen.
The objectivity of standing back from academia and looking at the overall value of the project.
So to get good representation for all fields of biology is what we really want.
So we need people to come in and volunteer for these committees.
Research has actually shown that when you have a diverse board that you actually improve
decision-making and so we absolutely want to ensure we’ve got the appropriate diversity
that’s actually representative of the wider community.
I encourage my colleagues to apply to be committee members.
You do feel good about what actually we’re doing as a scientific community, you’re
learning about techniques that you wouldn’t necessarily have heard about.
You meet people, you meet other IM’s, broaden your professional networks, so it is only
a good thing, except for the time, it does take time.
I think you learn as much if not more than you put into it, so if you’re thinking about
it, I’d say just do it and try it.
So we had one day’s training, so we spent a whole day with BBSRC and in the morning
they talked about BBSRC strategic priorities, what they’re looking for from high quality
grant proposals.
And in the afternoon, which was more useful, we had a mock panel meeting, so we’re actually
sat in a committee room with all the other members.
We had grants which had already been assessed, and funded or not funded, and we all went
through and assessed them again.
My suggestion and recommendation is really to not be shy and give it a try.