BES Review College

The aim of our Review College is to build a community of individuals who have knowledge, experience and expertise within ecology and use their skills by assessing grant applications.

We call upon members of the Review College to read, comment and score applications according to their remit of expertise.

Our aim is that each application will be seen by three members of the Review College before the top percentage is discussed at our Grants Committee Meeting – where the final decision is made.  The process is slightly different for the Large Research Grants, which are first shortlisted by Grants Committee before the Review College is then asked to score the top 8 applications.

Each member of the Review College will choose their relevant areas of expertise from a list of key words, allowing us to link the application to the most appropriate reviewer. There may be times you will be asked to review a grant that falls out of your area of expertise, however we do try to keep this to a minimum.

Being a member of our Review College

The main role is to help decide which grant applications are successful.

Peer review of grant applications is an extremely important process; it not only influences the projects and individuals that receive funding, but it also impacts on an individual’s career and the ecological community as a whole.

Being a member provides you with experience of reviewing grant applications which can boost your CV and our reviewers are likely to have their profile raised via our website, our membership magazine and at our Annual Meeting.

Time Commitment

Applications are reviewed twice a year – generally during March and October. The length and number of applications each Review College member is assigned varies according to the scheme; we aim to distribute the workload equally.

You can opt to end your membership at any time by emailing Siri, our Grants and Events Officer. Membership is reviewed on a regular basis and we will assume you are no longer able to help if you do not respond to requests on more than one occasion.

Apply to become a member of the Review College