Should Grant Applicants Evaluate Rivals? Unconventional Model Faces Real-World Trials

Swift Summary

• The article discusses a distributed peer review system in which grant applicants are enlisted to evaluate competitors’ proposals.
• This unorthodox approach aims to involve more researchers in peer review processes to address challenges like limited reviewer availability.
• Critics have raised concerns that some reviewers might lack the necessary expertise for thorough evaluations.

Indian Opinion Analysis
Distributed peer review represents an innovative effort to streamline and broaden participation in research grant evaluations, addressing logistical bottlenecks faced by funding agencies worldwide, including in India. Its critique lies in the risk of insufficiently qualified assessments possibly influencing outcomes, which calls for rigorous oversight and feedback mechanisms if adopted broadly. A robust evaluation framework would be vital to ensuring fairness while leveraging wider researcher involvement-a significant consideration for India’s growing scientific research ecosystem.

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