Letters of Intent and Full Applications are reviewed by the Grants Review and Awards Committee which comprises 12 members, representing many of the leading experts from clinical and academic medicine:

• David Lillicrap MD, Kingston, Canada (co-chairman)
• Johannes Oldenburg MD, Bonn, Germany (co-chairman)
• Erik Berntorp MD, Malmö, Sweden
• Alison Street MD, Melbourne, Australia
• Craig Kessler MD, Washington DC, USA
• Pier Mannucci MD, Milan, Italy
• Andrea Pritchard PhD, RN, MN, Calgary, AB, Canada
• Brenda Riske MS, MBA, MPA, Aurora, CO, USA
• Alok Srivastava MD, Vellore, India
• Marijke van den Berg MD, Utrecht, Netherlands
• Gil White MD, Milwaukee, WI, USA
• Midori Shima MD, Nara, Japan

All members of the Grants Review and Awards Committee will review the Letters of Intent and determine which candidates will be invited to submit full applications. Full applications will be reviewed by at least two members of the committee.
Reviewers will evaluate full applications according to the criteria outlined in the Awards section of this website. The reviewers will provide written comments and preliminary numeric scores according to these criteria.
The Committee will meet to discuss individual proposals including strengths, weaknesses and scoring. In this meeting, a consensus score for each grant application will be agreed upon. Proposals will then be ranked according to these scores in order to determine funding. In the event of identical scoring, the Committee will discuss the proposals in question and revise the scoring in order to clearly define a ranked priority. Funding will occur on a regional basis.
Three regions are defined as:

1. United States and Canada
2. Europe (for the purposes of this award, the Europe region includes Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom)
3. Japan, China, India, Australia and all other countries.

Awards will be determined on the final priority score as agreed by the Grants Review and Awards Committee. In the event that inadequate numbers of acceptable applications are received from a particular region, additional acceptable proposals will be funded solely on the basis of priority scores, without regard to region.
The Committee's decision is final and there is no appeal mechanism. Applicants who have constructive suggestions about the review of their applications, or the process in general, are encouraged to contact us. See Contact.

Conflict of Interest

The Program has 'conflict of interest' guidelines that ensure reviews are conducted in a fair and equitable manner. Reviewers will not participate in the review or priority scoring of applications in which they, or institutions with which they are affiliated, have an interest. Also, to the extent practicable, reviewers will not participate in the review of proposals competing for funding with proposals for individuals associated with their institutions.

Confidentiality

The members of the Grants Review and Awards Committee are bound by the confidentiality rules generally applicable to such bodies. In certain circumstances, where patentable material is being discussed, Bayer HealthCare may ask the external members of the Grants Review and Awards Committee to sign a more specific confidentiality document.