Consumer and community representatives in peer review for Targeted Calls for Research and Clinical Trials and Cohort Studies

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is committed to strengthening the involvement of consumers and the community in health and medical research and continue to innovate, evaluate and optimise peer review.

The involvement of consumers and community representatives in the peer review of grant applications offer the following benefits:

• Enhanced relevance and impact
• Improved transparency and communication
• Reducing bias and encouraging innovation

NHMRC's Targeted Calls for Research (TCR) scheme is a dedicated funding stream used to address urgent or specific health issues where there is a lack of research to inform clinical practice guidance or health policy.

NHMRC’s Clinical Trials and Cohort Studies (CTCS) Grants scheme supports high-quality clinical trials and cohort studies that address important gaps in knowledge, leading to relevant and implementable findings for the benefit of human health.

Both TCR and CTCS provide the opportunity for consumer and community members, researchers and NHMRC to work together to identify the best and most relevant research to improve the health of Australians.

The NHMRC Policy on Consumer and Community Participation in Peer Review outlines NHMRC's approach to consumer and community participation in the peer review of applications received through TCR, CTCS and other priority-driven research schemes. Consumer and community representatives will be required to provide a score for each application based on specific assessment criteria outlined in the grant opportunity and peer review guidelines. This score will be combined with the scores by the health and medical researchers on the peer review panel to determine an overall score. The final scores form a ranked list of applications that guides funding recommendations.

Consumer and community representatives

Consumer and community representatives are people who have, or care for someone with, lived experience in a particular disease or health area. They may also be people who represent the views and interests of consumers (or their families and/or carers) that use specific health services, such as community organisations and/or patient advocacy groups.

When establishing a peer review panel, NHMRC seeks to select a mix of consumer and community representatives to ensure a broad range of perspectives and viewpoints are captured in the assessment of research applications.

Attributes NHMRC look for in consumer and community representatives include:

• patients and/or their carers who have lived experience in a particular disease or health area
• people who represent the views of patients, community organisations, health services and the like
• a good reading level is required for consumer and community representatives to review and assess applications (we can organise translation and accessibility services as required)
• a level of technical expertise and understanding of how to interpret the consumer and community involvement aspects within the grant application against the assessment criteria.

Members from a panel of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Consumer and Community Representatives will assess any grant applications which relate to the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Participation

The views of the consumer and community representatives are particularly important in the assessment of grant applications as they have an understanding of the unique cultural and community values or health needs the grant opportunity is focused on. Consumer and community representatives can assess a research proposal's applicability, relevance and potential impact on communities which ensures that the highest quality applications are funded. They can also assess if the research is designed appropriately and will effectively support consumer and/or community representatives involved in the conduct of the research.

Consumer and community representative involvement in the design and assessment of research applications gives health-services professionals and policy makers greater confidence in the outcomes informing health policies and health care services that are fit for purpose.

The opportunity for consumer and community members to work with researchers and NHMRC increases public understanding of, and engagement with, medical research. This renders the research process more open and transparent and assists in building public confidence in how research funding is spent. This will also protect against money and resources being wasted on research that has little or no benefit or impact for consumers.

If you are interested in participating as a consumer and community representative on a peer review panel, please complete the nomination form found in the downloads section (below). Upcoming grant opportunities with topic specific information can be found at Targeted Calls for Research and Clinical Trials and Cohort Studies.

Requirements for participation

As a consumer and community representative you will be required to:

• Review and assess multiple research applications in alignment with the specific grant guidelines assessment criteria
• Use NHMRC's grants management system, Sapphire, to access the research applications and related documents relating to score the applications
• Attend briefing meetings that run through the roles and responsibilities of consumer and community representatives and receive training on use of Sapphire to access and score applications
• Attend a peer review panel meeting with other consumer and community representatives and health and medical researchers. At the peer review panel meeting, consumer and community representatives will be required to provide a verbal report on a limited number of applications and participate in a discussion of all applications.

For more information or enquiries, please reach out to the team at CCRnetwork@nhmrc.gov.au.

Time commitment

The time involved in being a consumer and community representative depends on the number of grant applications received. Consumer and community representatives will be required to spend time reading and assessing grant applications in advance, attend briefings and will then be required to attend a peer review panel meeting. They will provide a verbal report and participate in discussion of all applications. The peer review panel meeting may take up to 2 days. Monetary compensation will be provided.