Diabetes UK offers research funding to scientists and clinicians working in universities and hospitals throughout the UK and, generally speaking, the money they receive pays for salaries as well as the equipment and materials to carry out their research.
Researchers apply for a grant by sending Diabetes UK an application form, stating in detail what research they plan to carry out, how the work will benefit people with diabetes, and how much it will cost.
Because these grant applications regularly contain complex scientific information, Diabetes UK’s Trustees seek the advice of Diabetes UK’s Research Committee in deciding which proposals to fund. Before this, all of the applications also undergo a process of ‘peer review’ where they are assessed by an independent external group of expert scientists.
For PhD Studentships, this peer review process is carried out by a remote panel of expert scientists who score the applications. For the other funding schemes, Diabetes UK’s Research department selects appropriate peer reviewers for each application. The reviewers must be senior researchers and have expertise in an area relevant to the application. To ensure that this process is fair, we avoid conflicts of interest, such as the applicant and peer reviewer having worked together in the past.
We ask the peer reviewers to comment in detail on various aspects of the research application, for example the feasibility, cost-effectiveness and likely success of the proposed research. Armed with a range of peer review reports, Diabetes UK’s Research Committee then meets to discuss the applications and make recommendations to the charity’s Board of Trustees about which projects to support.