The Assessment Procedure

  • Criteria that will be given particular weighting when making the funding decision will be described under the terms and conditions of the grant but a good, timely and relevant project will always be clear.
  • The assessing committee will be a panel composed of the funding partners represented in the current round along with a non-scoring chair. Variable members of this committee will take responsibility for groups of projects and present them at an awards meeting.
  • Wherever possible each project will receive at least two sets of external peer review, along with internal committee review including lay review.
  • Applicants can expect to receive detailed feedback but the NIAA decline to enter into discussion and all decisions are final.
  • Investigators who receive funding via the NIAA might also find it helpful to read the NIAA's Data Handling Policy, which covers all datasets coming under the responsibility of the NIAA HSRC, and the NIAA's position statement on the anonymisation of data.


Grant Committee meetings are usually held within two - three months of the deadline for applications to allow time for external peer review. Candidates will usually be notified within one week of the Grant Committee.

Successful applicants will be asked to produce a first year and interim or final report for posting on the NIAA website, which will also be sent to funding partners. Please note that applicants who do not submit their progress reports on time may not be permitted to apply for further funding until the outstanding report is provided.