FAQs: Grant Evaluation

What are the review considerations?

Applications will be evaluated for scientific and technical merit by experts in the subject matter of the application by members of the various CORE Societies and the AAO-HNSF Subcommittee on Research Grants and Prizes, who will assign a priority score to the applications based on their scientific merit, feasibility, innovation, and approach. A carefully designed and feasible study will be considered responsive to the Call for Papers. Additional evaluation criteria include:

Significance
The extent to which the project, if successfully carried out, will make an original and important contribution to biomedical and/or behavioral science.

Approach
The extent to which the conceptual framework, design (including, as applicable, the selection of appropriate subject populations or animal models), methods, and analyses are properly developed, well-integrated, and appropriate to the aims of the project, including the following:

• Plan for use of controls
• Sample size justification
• Power functions where appropriate
• Analysis techniques

Feasibility
The likelihood that the proposed work can be accomplished in the project period by the investigators, and the adequacy of plans for the recruitment and retention of human subjects where applicable.

Subjects
The appropriate, safe, and humane use of subjects, both human and animal, in the project. There is need to ascertain not only if the project has been approved by the appropriate intramural institutional committees, but also if these are acceptable procedures. Institutional approval is not a priori evidence of a procedure's acceptability.

Personnel
The following will be used to evaluate personnel:

• Do the personnel have the appropriate background?
• Do they have the appropriate skills?
• If this is a training grant, will the training actually come about and will it be appropriate to the objectives of the grant?
• Does the Principal Investigator have an active role in the project beyond supervision of technical personnel?

Budget
The following will be considered in evaluating the fiscal plan:

• Are the funds requested appropriate to the design, the facility, and to the personnel?
• Is there adequate written justification for proposed expenditures?

See Summary of Allowable Salary and Travel Costs (PDF) for more information.

How are funding decisions made?

For the AAO-HNSF grants, the CORE Study Section subcommittee presents its recommendations for funding of AAO-HNS Foundation grant applications to the AAO-HNS Foundation Board of Directors, through the Coordinator for Research, at its next regularly scheduled meeting following the study section. All final decisions regarding actual award of grants are made by the Foundation Board of Directors.

The recommendations, applications, final priority scores and summary statements are shared with each contributing sister society and foundation. Each society and foundation has a slightly different process; however, in general, the final decision is made by an advisory panel, council or board.