Evaluation and Selection

Fellowships will be awarded to the academic institution following NRA evaluation of the applications. Applications will be reviewed and assessed under the following headings:

(a) Track record of supervisors
(b) Quality of applications
(c) Relevance of application to goals identified in topic descriptions

Project costs will also be considered in relation to the available NRA budget.

The assessment of the projects will be co-ordinated by the NRA Research Manager. Technical evaluation will be carried out by appropriate NRA staff: external review may also be carried out at the discretion of the NRA. On the basis of this review, the submissions will be ranked and selected for inclusion in the programme.

Following this selection process, an initial meeting with the first ranked project team will be held to discuss the details of the project, clarify the project objectives and agree the project costs and timescales. The NRA may invite other interested parties to the meeting if appropriate. Following the meeting, the research proposal will be revised, as necessary. Note that projects will only be included in the programme if they conform to NRA requirements in terms of quality, cost and timescale. The NRA may wish to re-assess the original submissions if this is felt appropriate.