Standards for internal review of proposals

Guarantee equitable access to relevant information before the proposals are submitted

• Provide a clear statement of the purpose and expected use of the funding

• Provide a clear statement concerning other funding sources, such as matching funds being required, or if existing funding diminishes consideration for this award

• Provide a clear statement on expectations about how future funding will be treated

• Clearly define what sort of proposals are being requested (include all of the requirements including eligibility)

• Provide an explicit explanation of all of the steps in the review process

• Have a clear statement of evaluation criteria for selection for funding 

• Advertise broadly to help guarantee that everyone eligible has a chance to participate

• Provide a clear statement of the evaluation criteria to all eligible proposers

Careful selection and preparation of reviewer

• Select reviewers with expertise matched to the goals of the Request for Proposal

• Reviewers must be selected to control for any potential for conflict

• No one involved in the call for proposals or the review process should be allowed to submit proposals; if the pool of reviewers with the appropriate expertise is so small as to not allow this, all proposers should be made aware of this and given the opportunity to participate as reviewers.

• All reviewers must be apprised of the potential for conflict and asked to recuse themselves if a potential for conflict exists

• Reviewers need to be familiar with the Request for Proposal and evaluation criteria

• All reviewers should receive the same instructions about their responsibilities and the expectations for the review process

• Reviewers should not discuss any aspect of any proposal reviewed or share aspects of the discussion of any proposals with anyone outside the review process

Maintain strict adherence to due dates and any proposal requirements (length, formatting, proposal routing requirements)

Review proposals according to the prescribed process and criteria

• Have more than one reviewer per proposal

• Provide the opportunity for reviewers to discuss ratings

• Complete the review process in a timely manner

Provide explicit feedback to proposers in a timely manner