Research Expertise - Classifications

The information provided in this section will be used by the Research Councils to identify appropriate peer reviewers for proposals that they receive. It would therefore assist us greatly if you could use the various sections to provide a comprehensive description of your area of expertise.

The introduction of a harmonised classification structure means that, if your area of expertise crosses the remits of more than one of the Research Councils, you will now only need to provide this information once.

Please note that the MRC will not be using this classification so if they are the only Research Council to which your expertise is relevant, you do not need to complete this section.

The classification consists of three parts:

1. Research Areas

These replace either the subject areas or pre-defined keywords that existed in our previous expertise classifications. You can either search the list of Research Areas or browse through it by expanding higher levels to identify those areas of most relevance.

In some areas, three levels have been defined, whereas in others there are only two. You cannot select terms at the top-level of the structure, as this is mainly a grouping to assist you in finding relevant areas, but you may select at either the second level or the third level, where this is available. Please try to select terms at the lowest appropriate level to describe your expertise and note that it is particularly important for you to complete the free-text keywords part of the classification if the Research Areas that you select are at the second level.

You may make selections within up to ten second-level Research Areas. Within these ten second-level Research Areas you may make as many selections at the third level as you wish. Please ensure that once you have completed your selection you set a primary area to assist in the reviewer matching process.

2. Qualifiers

These terms further qualify those selected under Research Areas. Qualifiers are grouped by type, for example Time Period or Methodology. Some types will only be relevant to the remits of a subset of the Research Councils, and some are likely only to be applicable to classification of proposals rather than expertise of individuals. Please review the descriptions of  qualifier types or browse the list on screen to decide which may apply to your area of expertise.

You may select as many Qualifiers as are relevant to enable us to gain a more detailed understanding of the nature of your expertise.

3. Free-text keywords

These are intended to supplement the information you have provided using predefined terms and will be of particular relevance if your expertise falls in Research Areas that are defined to a second rather than third level of detail. Keywords should be terms that do not already occur in the predefined lists and that you feel best describe your particular area(s) of interest.

As the predefined terms should be used where available, and keywords only to further refine these, you will first need to search for possible matches for your proposed keyword. If no match is found, you should proceed to add the keyword. Again, you may add as many of these as you consider appropriate.