Overall Assessment - ESRC specific
Please provide feedback to the applicant(s) in the box provided on all aspects of the proposal, considering all the relevant assessment criteria. A brief reminder of the generic assessment criteria for ESRC research proposals is given below, but please note that some calls have additional or different assessment criteria, which will be made available to you as part of the reviewer request. Full details of the assessment criteria for proposals to all schemes can be found via this link: (https://esrc.ukri.org/funding/guidance-for-peer-reviewers/peer-review-scoring-scales-and-je-s-classification/)
Generic Assessment Criteria
Originality/Potential contribution to knowledge
Research Design and Methods, including data management
Value for Money
Outputs, Dissemination and Impact
Mitigating against COVID-19 issues
UKRI acknowledges that it is a challenge for applicants to determine the future impacts of COVID-19 while the pandemic continues to evolve. Applications should be based on the information available at the point of submission and, if applicable, the known application specific impacts of COVID-19 should be accounted for. Where known impacts have occurred, these should be highlighted in the application, including the assumptions/information at the point of submission. There is no need to include contingency plans for the potential impacts of COVID-19. Requests for travel both domestically and internationally can be included in accordance to the relevant scheme guidelines, noting the above advice.
Reviewers will receive instructions to assume that changes that arise from the COVID-19 pandemic, post-submission, will be resolved and complications related to COVID-19 should not affect their scores.
Where an application is successful, any changes in circumstances that affect the proposal will be managed as a post-award issue.
Applicant Feedback and Response to Peer Reviewers’ Comments
If a review is considered unusable it will be referred back to you for revision. Reasons why a comment might be felt to be unusable include:
Reviewer’s identity disclosed
Discriminatory or gratuitously offensive remarks
Inadequate justification of the scores assigned to the proposal
Text does not match the scores
Text suggests a misunderstanding of ESRC policy, such as remit of a call
Please note that both the text of your comments and also the scores you assign to the proposal will be fed back to applicants. Consequently it is very important that your scores reflect your textual comments. In addition, your comments should clarify your assessment of the different elements of the proposal.
For the majority of ESRC schemes/calls applicants will be given an opportunity to provide a response to your anonymised reviewers' comments before proposals are sent to panel members for comment.