The Research Councils regularly Councils regularly review their policies and procedures as their research communities evolve and continually strive to eliminate any inadvertent organisational or procedural barriers to multidisciplinary working.
In 2000, Research Councils agreed and published a joint statement on the peer review of research proposals at the interface of Councils’ remits (updated in August 2006)
As well as general statements of principle, this encouraged potential applicants to discuss multidisciplinary applications with Councils before submission, guaranteed that all Councils with a substantial interest in a proposal would be consulted in helping to assess the proposal, recognised the need for flexibility in peer review, and stated that the assessment process would be agreed between Councils to avoid double jeopardy.
However effective peer review of proposals in innovative or emerging areas that cross disciplines continues to present a challenge for the Research Councils and other grant awarding bodies, both in the UK and internationally. The Research Councils are working together to tackle these concerns, by providing earmarked funding for specific activities and striving to ensure that all Councils – and other funders - operate high quality peer review systems capable of assessing complex multidisciplinary proposals in a fair and transparent way. Examples of actions taken to address this include:
- managing multidisciplinary peer review through multidisciplinary peer review committees in areas such as Engineering and Biological Systems and Biomolecular Sciences (BBSRC).
- replacing discipline based peer review committees with colleges of reviewers (EPSRC, ESRC & NERC).
- investing time and effort in "educating" their reviewers in the assessment of multidisciplinary proposals to ensure that the benefits of joint working are recognised and assessed.
In addition, the Research Councils have jointly developed a benchmarking process to support the continuous improvement and sharing of good practice within the Research Councils peer review processes. The implementation of the Joint Electronic Submission System for research grants has also made it easier for those applying for multidisciplinary funding.