Launching and maintaining a successful research grant program is an exercise in detail-level and big-picture thinking alike. But perhaps one of the most critical needs to ensure impact is finding the best peer reviewers for the grant program at hand.

When you’re considering how to find peer reviewers for your initiative or grant program, it’s best to start with a plan. A plan for what sort of individuals or groups you’re seeking. A plan for the best ways to locate and zero in on the most suitable candidate. And a plan for integrating those individuals into your network and peer review process for the long haul.

So where to begin?

Start With the Ideal

Before you begin scanning publication footnotes or searching online to recruit peer reviewers, take a step back. By taking the time to consider and document your ideal peer reviewer or reviewers, you’ll be all the more prepared to effectively narrow your options once you begin to bring potential candidates to the table.

A few questions to ask yourself:

• Who are you really hoping to work with? What characteristics should they possess? 
• What indicators or guardrails do you want to establish to guide screening for any conflicts of interest? Considerations to help avoid a peer review conflict of interest could include evaluating whether a reviewer is known to be independent of other reviewers you’re considering, or whether the reviewer has particularly strong views or opinions on the topic, as opposed to a more neutral point of view.
• How many individuals do you want to include in your review team?
• How do you want to qualify your parameters for diversity when cultivating your overarching reviewer pool? Considerations could include gender, background, geographic region, career stage, number of publications, or any number of other metrics.
• Do you want to have guardrails around how many times you would consider asking the same reviewer to support you?

After you’ve outlined your “reviewer matrix,” you can begin the exploration process. And your existing sphere of influence is always a valuable jumping-off point.

Leverage Your Network

What better place to start than with those peer reviewers and collaborators with whom you’ve already partnered in the past? Consider previous participants from similar grant programs. Or, consider those who might have passed on a previous peer review request. Just because it wasn’t the right time for them to support a program in the past doesn’t mean they might not be eager and excited to help serve as a participant in your current program’s peer review corps.

When it comes to building and referring back to a potential peer reviewer pool over time,  Altum’s flagship grants management platform, ProposalCentral, is an invaluable tool. 

ProposalCentral puts invaluable efficiencies and workflows at your fingertips, including capabilities like flagging potential conflicts, enabling reviewers to discuss applications and collaborate virtually within the platform, and even empowering reviewers to submit votes and scoring natively.

Find a great example in our case study about Altum’s partnership with the Melanoma Research Alliance.

Broaden the Search

Striking out within your existing pool, or looking to widen your explorations? There are numerous additional measures you can take to evaluate peer reviewers and source the most effective and balanced team to assess your application pool. One potential place to start: By checking up on references and footnotes within current or previous application sets.

Alternatively, you can carry the search outward to use tools and databases to find researchers and applications around similar topics. Consider setting some predefined keywords to help guide your search—whether the category of the grant type, the particular scientific field of the research, or even looking at the peer review teams for competitor or peer programs as a jumping-off point.

For a more immersive breakdown of how to run a successful grant peer review, check out our eBook,”5 Steps to Running a Successful Grant Peer Review.”

This valuable resource also includes tips and suggestions for developing a smart scoring rubric and moving smoothly and efficiently through reviews.

You can also get a video overview with our webinar, “Running a Great Grant Peer Review.”

The peer review is a critical component of research grant-making. Learn how leading scientific funders are using technology and the power of community to streamline and enhance the peer review process.

Get Creative

You’re likely beginning to make some valuable headway as you cultivate the most suitable peer review team to evaluate your applications. So when it comes to adding those last few voices to your assessment, you can tap into a few less expected resources, too. 

What about your personal network? Sure, you might not recall the name of the perfect individual off the top of your head or in searching via keywords—but by leveraging your social networks, particularly LinkedIn, you may capture fresh recommendations from close or looser ties within your community. You never know who may have just the right recommendation for your peer review team.

Alternatively, you can consider other versions of community within your sphere. If you’re attending upcoming meetings or conferences, take the opportunity to inquire with colleagues and new acquaintances who may have reviewers to recommend. Participating in a webinar discussion? Consider those within your panel, whether as potential candidates or as recommenders with ideas to bring to the table.

And last but not least: Consider younger generations, too. By tapping into any acquaintances or field-specific professors and leadership at universities or research institutions you admire, you might connect with an exciting rising star in their respective field who could bring a valuable perspective to application review.

For additional tips and recommendations straight from valued experts, check out our panel discussion webinar, “Finding The Right Peer Reviewers.”

Maximize Your Momentum

Once you’ve sourced and confirmed the ideal peer review team for your grant program, don’t let them go. The more you can continue to build upon your network and list of potential considerations over time, the more efficient and fluid your team-building process will become.

Ultimately, a smooth peer review process is absolutely critical to a successful award and post-reward progress. That’s what drives Altum forward. When we can accelerate research, we accelerate impact. And that’s what transforms our world.