Table 1 The Cancer Council NSW grant review process

Applicants for research grants must demonstrate that the research has the relevant approval (eg human ethics, animal ethics, bio-safety) from a recognised research ethics committee before a grant is funded. Specialty research committees review research grant applications based on scientific merit criteria and give a rating and ranking to eligible applications which are then forwarded to CCNSW for a further assessment against consumer review criteria.

Step 2 : Consumer review

A trained Consumer Review Panel assesses the eligible funding applications (pre-selected through the scientific review process) based on consumer review criteria and assigns a separate 'public value' weighting to each. An overall priority ranking for the applications is developed identifying those that best satisfy the consumer review criteria.

Step 3 : Cancer Research Committee recommendations

The Cancer Council's Cancer Research Committee (CRC) formally reviews funding applications that have been assigned a priority ranking against both scientific merit and consumer review criteria, and makes final funding recommendations to the CCNSW board.

In making their funding recommendations, the CRC gives the rankings from each group equal weighting and assesses any major discrepancies between consumer and scientific review to ensure that the final list of fundable projects is the most appropriate.