The Assessment Process

 

The assessment process has been designed to be rigorous, fair and equitable in all respects. To avoid potential conflicts of interest, the process will be managed by an external consultant with extensive expertise in managing large scale funding rounds for granting bodies. This has enabled all of the NICM personnel, consultants and associates who may have an interest in participating in a NICM Collaborative Centre Establishment Program to be excluded from all aspects of the process.

 

 

The assessment will be guided by the specifications set out in the funding policy. The recommendations for selection will be made by the Expert Assessment Panel, based on input received from the External Reviewers.

 

 

The Expert Assessment Panel will be chosen from around Australia based on their scientific expertise as well as their past involvement with the assessment of academic applications. The panel members will be independent in their views, and will have no affiliation with any of the NICM Collaborative Centre applications, and no bias towards any particular institution.

 

 

External Reviewers will be chosen for their expertise in the subject area of the application and will be drawn from both Australia and overseas. There will be three reviewers for each application. The reviewers selected will be independent of affiliation with any of the NICM Collaborative Centre Applications.

 

 

The recommendation of the Expert Assessment Panel will be reviewed by the NICM Advisory Board to ensure the recommendations made fall within the parameters of the NICM Collaborative Centre Establishment Program Policy and NICM's research objectives and financial guidelines. The final approval from the Pro-Vice Chancellor Research of the University of Western Sydney (UWS) is required to ensure that the NICM Collaborative Centres chosen are appropriate in the context of the contractual arrangements that UWS has made with the government funding bodies. Both the NICM Advisory Panel and UWS will hold the recommendations of the Expert Assessment Panel in high regard , and neither group intends to reassess the scientific merits of the applications.

 

 

The Assessment process has been designed with the intent of being objective, and to ensure that applications are assessed on their merit. Following this process, consistent with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Clth), feedback will be given to all applicants.