The Wellcome Trust–DBT India Alliance (the ‘Alliance’) has a duty to ensure that applications for funding are assessed expertly, objectively and impartially; review by an appropriately constituted body is therefore seen as an essential element of the Alliance's decision-making process. For this reason, the Alliance's Trustees delegate their authority to make decisions on applications to their selection committees. The Alliance relies heavily on the willingness of members of the scientific community to give their time to sit on these selection committees, and the Alliance is most grateful to them for the vital role they play in the grant-giving process.
The Alliance also recognises the need to protect and preserve the integrity of the Alliance’s grant-giving processes, and is concerned that selection committee members may be placed under pressure to breach confidentiality and provide information on committee discussions and recommendations. To assist selection committee members in these situations, the Alliance has set down a code of conduct for those who serve on its selection committees.
For the protection of other selection committee members and referees, and to ensure the impartiality of the peer-review process, if the Alliance has reason to believe that a member of an Alliance selection committee has breached the following code of conduct, then he/she may be asked to resign his or her membership.
Code of conduct
- 1. Selection committee members should be aware that:
1.1 they are covered by the Alliance’s policy on conflicts of interest and are required to declare any interests that could give rise to a conflict of interest with their Alliance role
1.2 they should not offer advice to members of the scientific community on the Alliance’s policy and practices, for example on application procedures - all such enquiries should be directed to the staff of the Alliance. - 2.The following are strictly confidential:
2.1 selection committee's discussions (including the reasons for decisions to fund or not to fund)
2.2 the contents of papers and correspondence relating to applications for funds. - 3.Selection committee members and referees also have a right to expect that their comments will be treated in confidence, by both the Alliance’s staff and other members of the selection committees. For that reason:
3.1 papers must be kept secure and not disseminated to anyone
3.2 applications must not be discussed with anyone else (including colleagues based at the member's host organisation and referees) without prior permission from the Alliance.
3.3 members of selection committees must not inform candidates of the composition of a selection committee or details of other applicants: if it is appropriate that the candidate should have this information, Alliance staff will provide details.
3.4 members of selection committees who are connected* in any way with an application must absent themselves from the meeting room during discussion of the application, and must not be informed of the outcome of the application by other members - they will be informed by Alliance staff in due course.
3.5 no aspect of the deliberations or recommendations regarding an application should be discussed with applicants, either in connection with their own application, or any other application. Feedback will be provided as appropriate by Alliance staff, in accordance with Alliance practice. Selection committee members should refuse any requests for information or for an explanation of how a particular decision was reached - all such requests must be referred to the staff of the Alliance.
3.6 the identity of referees must be kept confidential at all times.
Footnote
An individual will be connected with a grant application if he or she is:
- an applicant or a named collaborator
- a relative or member of the household of one of the applicants (including but not limited to spouse, child, sibling, or parent)
- a business partner of one of the applicants; a member or employee of the same university, or other organisation, as one of the grant applicants.
