Grants Review Committee
(Fall 2023)
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 committee members 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.
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After application deadlines, each Committee member will receive a document that informs them on how to review a grant application. Each member will also be responsible for signing a confidentiality agreement that will be sent out to them in the same email following sign-up deadline.
If anyone feels that they would like an in-person explanation on how to review a grant after going through the "how to" document, don't hesitate to reach out to the director of grants.
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Committee members will then be assigned one or two sets of grant applications to review. Typically each set is 8 grants. Within a set, each grant is graded from 1 - 8 (8 being the highest). Review member will be given about a week to complete their reviews.
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At the grant review meeting, Committee members are responsible for discussing and reviewing the grant applications that they reviewed. Review sessions typically last 2 hours. All reviewers will receive a gift card as compensation for their time.
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.
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Please contact cogsgrant@umn.edu with any questions.