Join the NIHR Reviewer Development Scheme

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The NIHR Reviewer Development Scheme is for early career researchers who are new to reviewing or want to develop their skills further. The scheme offers members the opportunity to gain experience of peer review for NIHR funding programmes and in turn influence research commissioning. 

Reviewing is an excellent way to:

  • learn what makes a successful research proposal
  • find out about forthcoming research in your field
  • use your expertise to influence research
  • increase your insight into best practice in health and care research
  • gain recognition for your CPD portfolio

As a scheme member you will receive feedback on your reviews, have access to experienced reviewers’ comments and be notified of the committee’s decision about the research brief or proposal you have reviewed. 

Each year, all post-doctoral scheme members are invited to apply for a limited number of one year NIHR Committee Member Development Scheme (CMDS) roles.

This scheme is for NIHR Academy and Associate members, MRC Researchers, and Health and Care Research Wales (HCRW)-funded personal award holders  who

  • hold a current NIHR Academy award or equivalent award as part of an NIHR infrastructure centre, or are in formal training as part of an NIHR funded research project (an NIHR associate member)

or

  • hold a current MRC intermediate (CDA or CSF), CARP or skills development fellowship, a New Investigator Research Grant or an MRC / UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships (FLF) award (with relevant healthcare background)

or

  • are postdoctoral researchers employed on MRC funded project or programme grants or in MRC centres and institutes. 

or

  • hold a Health and Care Research Wales-funded personal award 

Members must also

  • be in their final year at doctoral level or be postdoctoral 

and

  • be below consultant level
  • not be experienced reviewers or chief/principal investigators with a strong publication track record

Scheme members must be in receipt of one of the following awards

NIHR Personal Awards

  • Doctoral Fellowship (final year fellows only)
  • Advanced Fellowship
  • Development and Skills Enhancement Award (DSE)

MRC personal awards 

  • MRC Career Development Award
  • MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship
  • MRC Clinical Academic Research Partnership
  • MRC Skills Development Fellowship
  • MRC New Investigator Research Grant
  • MRC / UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships (FLF) award (with relevant healthcare background)

HCRW Personal awards

  • Health and Care Research Wales-funded personal awards (such as doctoral level awards and post-doctoral fellowships).

HEE-NIHR Integrated Clinical Academic (ICA) Programme

  • Clinical Lectureship
  • ICA Bridging Schemes
  • Clinical Doctoral Research Fellowship (CDRF) – (Final year)

Integrated Academic Training (IAT)

  • Clinical Lectureship (CL)

Training within NIHR or MRC Infrastructure and NIHR Schools

Final year doctoral or post-doctoral researchers whose training is within one of the following centres:

  • Applied Research Collaborations (ARCs)
  • Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs)
  • Health Protection Research Units (HPRUs)
  • Patient Safety Translational Research Centres (PSTRCs)
  • School for Primary Care Research (SPCR)
  • School for Public Health Research (SPHR)
  • School for Social Care Research (SSCR) 
  • MRC Centres and Institutes

NIHR Associates and MRC postdoctoral researchers

Final year doctoral or postdoctoral researchers whose training is funded as part of an NIHR research funding award such as an HSDR funded research project, or MRC funded post-doctoral researchers.

Register to join the NIHR Reviewer Development Scheme

If you are interested in joining the scheme, please complete the registration form below.  If you have any queries about your eligibility to join the scheme please contact us at netsreviewing@nihr.ac.uk.

For more experienced award holders interested in reviewing, please register to join our NIHR community of reviewers.

Your information will be held on our secure Management Information System (MIS) and REsearch Awards Lifecycle Management System (REALMS) databases so that we can contact you when a suitable reviewing opportunity arises.

For longer answers, you can drag the bottom right-hand corner of a text-entry field to expand the size. If you have any other queries about how to fill out this form, please do not hesitate to contact us at netsreviewing@nihr.ac.uk

Section 1

Your contact details

Section 2

Your training award

Please provide details of your training award. Please use the relevant sections depending on how your training is funded.

Training within NIHR and MRC Infrastructure and NIHR Schools

If your training award is funded via NIHR or MRC Infrastructure and Capacity Building centres, please indicate which type of centre you are associated with.

MRC funded researchers

If your training award is funded through MRC please select the type of award from the drop down menu.

NIHR Associates and MRC postdoctoral researchers

If your training award is funded as part of an NIHR research funding award or an MRC project or programme grant, please give the research programme, reference number and title of the NIHR or MRC research project your training is funded by.

 

Health and Care Research Wales-funded personal award 

If your training award is funded through Health and Care Research Wales, please detail the type of award.

Term of award

Please state the start and end dates of your current training award.

Section 3

Tell us about yourself

Please use the space below to tell us more about yourself, such as your research areas, published work, methodological expertise, and finally any interests or personal experiences that may be relevant.

If you would like to supplement this information by attaching your CV, publication list or other document that may be useful please use this section to add a file.

Section 4

Expertise

Please identify the areas in which you could most effectively review using 'key' words or phrases (such as paediatric cardiology, service management, health economics, questionnaire design, obesity etc...)

Section 5

Areas of expertise

Please select any areas of expertise relevant to you
Section 6

How did you hear about us?

How did you hear about joining the NIHR Reviewer Development Scheme?
Section 7

Confidentiality and Data protection

NIHR Reviewer Development Scheme members are asked to abide by the NIHR Peer Reviewer Confidentiality Agreement. Please read the confidentiality document and tick the box below to commit to this agreement.

View the NIHR Peer Reviewer Confidentiality Agreement

We publish an annual list of reviewers who have completed a review for us during the past year. If you are asked to review, your contribution as a reviewer will be acknowledged on our website as a gesture of our appreciation. We will only list your name, and ensure that there is no indication of the reviewing task that you have completed. If you would prefer us not to publish your details, please indicate this by ticking below:

By completing this form you are agreeing to your details being added to our Management Information System (MIS) and REsearch Awards Lifecycle Management System (REALMS) databases. Your personal information is held and used in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act (2018). The Department of Health and Social Care, NIHR is the Data Controller under GDPR. Under GDPR, we have a legal duty to protect any information we collect from you. You should be aware that information given to us might be shared with other DHSC NIHR bodies for the purposes of statistical analysis and other DHSC NIHR management purposes. We also reserve the right to share details of research applications with other approved research funding organisations outside the NIHR in order to coordinate research activity in the UK. Information collected from you will not be passed to any third party outside the NIHR except specifically as detailed above without your consent except where we are under a statutory obligation or entitled to do so by law. Applicants may be assured that DHSC NIHR is committed to protecting privacy and to processing all personal information in a manner that meets the requirements of GDPR. You can ask for your details to be removed from our database at any time. 

View the NIHR Privacy Policy