In response to the commentary, “Time to Revisit NSERC Grant Rules” in the March 2011 issue of the CAUT Bulletin, we would like to clarify some of the points raised by Dr. John Murimboh.

As is the case in every granting agency’s allocation processes, difficult decisions have to be made regarding the necessary tradeoff between the number of funded applicants and the average grant size. At NSERC, the executive commit­tees of evaluation groups are asked to provide a recommendation in this regard, taking into consideration the specific needs of their community.

The discussion for the chemistry evaluation group in the 2010 competition Dr. Murimboh refers to was thorough and extensive. Faced with more meritorious applicants than could be funded through the budget, committee members examined various scenarios. In the end, they rejected the option of funding all Bin J applicants because it would have unacceptably eroded the purchasing power of the grants.

After hearing from our community, NSERC gave instructions to the evaluation group executive committees this year to no longer consider the option to “split” a bin. When faced with a situation of running out of funds within a given bin, most committees chose to award smaller grants to a larger number of researchers. The chemistry committee, again after careful deliberation, chose to give somewhat larger grants to a smaller number of applicants.

NSERC relies on the expertise of committee members to recommend the most appropriate options for their community. The Peer Review Manual is intended to guide their discussions, while allowing them to exercise their own judgement where warranted.

The decision to separate the assessment of an application’s merit from the funding recommendation is a key aspect of making the current system fairer, more transparent and more dynamic.

NSERC continues to monitor the results of implementing the new process. Adjustments have already been made in response to the first two competitions using the current processes, and NSERC will continue to refine the system.

In an effort to provide the community with all the information it needs about peer review, competition results and other information related to Discovery Grants, we have added a page to our web site at www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/discovery. This page will evolve over the next few months, with the addition of videos explaining the peer review process and other information.

Isabelle Blain
Vice-President
Research Grants & Scholarships
NSERC