The National Health and Medical Research Council today confirmed that an administrative error had occurred in its 2007 project grants review process that had inadvertently revealed the identity of some reviewers.
The error arose from failure to implement an established process that ‘wipes’ background data embedded in a review document that could be used to identify the reviewer.
‘A comprehensive audit of all 2500 grant applications is now under way to determine the full extent of the error’, NHMRC CEO Professor Warwick Anderson said today.
‘Following the audit NHMRC will contact all applicants and reviewers to inform them of the audit outcomes.’
‘We apologise for any instances where reviewers’ identities have been revealed in the current round of NHMRC project grant applications’.
‘We have now effectively closed this loophole through implementing additional mandatory checking.’
‘I am confident of the continued support and goodwill of the health and medical research community as we pull out all stops to determine the extent of the problem, and to fix it for good.’
NHMRC is introducing a new online grants management and reporting system in 2008-09 that will enable researchers to have protected online access to review reports on their grant applications.