The Chief Scientist Office, in common with the whole of the Scottish Government, is seeking efficiencies in the way it conducts its business. In the New Year, we shall move from two research funding committees, plus a separate process for small grants, to a single committee for all CSO grant awards. The new committee will meet three times per year, as do the existing ones. It will comprise two panels, one dealing with experimental medicine, the other with health services and population health research. There will be no outline stage for applications to the new committee, and no separate procedure for HSP small grants, but there will be no lower limit to the amount an applicant can seek.
The February 2012 meetings will be the last for the HSP and ETM, and the first meeting of the new Committee will be on 22 June 2012. The deadline for applications for that meeting will be 30 March 2012. New guidance and application forms will be available on the CSO website by 31 January 2012. In the meantime please do not submit outlines, small grant or project grant applications. Outlines and applications which have already been sent for review will continue to be processed in the usual way. Small grants in this category will be decided in March 2012, and full grants (other than those included in the agendas for the February meetings) will go to the new committee. If you have an application in the system, we shall explain when we return the referees’ comments how it will be handled from then on.
These are substantial changes to a system that has been in place with only small refinements for many years, and that is valued by the research community in Scotland. They are designed to create one that is fair and efficient for applicants, manageable with the resources available to the CSO, and makes best use of Committee members’ time. We want to get the changes right, and would welcome feedback on the new arrangements.
In 2012 Personal Awards will continue to be considered by separate panels, but discussions on how to incorporate these within the new systems will be undertaken.