Grants Review Committee
(Fall 2026)
Mission and Resposibilities
Members of the Grants Review Committee review and score applications for the highly competitive COGS grants. The Grants Review Committee is at the heart of our competitive process for allocating grant funding. Each application is read thoroughly and scored by at least two grant reviewers in the weeks before the working meetings, and the committee as a whole makes awards after discussing the applications. In the unlikely event that we are unable to finish making awards during a working meeting we'll schedule a follow-up meeting.
After the application closes, each grant reviewer will be required to attend a 30 minute training over Zoom or watch a recording of the training. Following the training, each reviewer is shared either one or two sets of grant applications to review. Typically each set consists of 8-10 grant applications and is reviewed by at least two grant reviewers. After about two weeks of reviewers scoring each application, reviewers are required to attend the group review session to discuss and score the application as a group. Review sessions typically last 2-3 hours. All reviewers will receive a gift card as a token of appreciation.
Reasons for Joining
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It's fun and collegiate;
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It's a good way to build your own grant-writing skills – our review process is designed to reflect a “realistic” model of grant award and review;
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You get to learn a lot about the research and student activities going on across campus; and
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We get to help people do cool, interesting things!
Interested in Serving on the COGS Grants Review Committee?
Any COGS graduate student is eligible to apply. Committee members will have to recuse themselves from discussing any application where they have a conflict of interest. Students who have applied for grants are ineligible to serve on the Review Committee that cycle.
Please contact cogsgrant@umn.edu with any questions.