Are you involved in assessing grant applications?
Then one of the following situations may sound familiar to you:
2.5 years ago you published a scientific article together with somebody.
And now your co-author has applied for a grant...
and you are a member of the selection committee.
Or you work in the same department as an applicant...
but on different projects.
Or A family member participates...
in a consortium that has submitted a grant application.
Situations like this require alertness.
Is there a personal interest?
This may never give rise to the impression that bias exists.
Should this nevertheless happen, then a reassessment could be necessary.
The entire selection process might need to be repeated.
Or the consequences could be even greater still.
NWO and ZonMw insist on the highest level of carefulness...
integrity and transparency.
We have therefore drawn up the Code for Dealing with Personal Interests.
This Code applies to everybody who plays a role in the assessment process.
You must report a personal interest and you also propose a measure for dealing with this.
A standard measure is that you...
do not take part in the assessment procedure...
for an application in which you have a personal interest.
This includes, for example:
pre-advice,
deliberation, or prioritising the application concerned.
The committee chair examines the overview...
of personal interests reported and measures proposed.
He or she will then make a proposal to the committee about how these interests should be dealt with.
The committee will subsequently choose an approach.
This may include additional measures...
such as increasing the size of the committee or adding a neutral observer.
The committee will justify this approach to the board...
in its advice about the grant applications.
We record all personal interests and measures taken...
in a completely transparent manner.
By doing this, we can safeguard both quality and integrity.
And we optimally fulfil our public task of funding high quality research.
Together we will deal with personal interests in the right manner.
View the Code and the explanation at www.nwo.nl/code