Grant application undergo a rigorous review process and are awarded on the basis of scientific merit in relation to Alzheimer’s Research UK’s remit, suitability for the scheme applied for, and open competition.
New Grant Review Process At Alzheimer's Research UK
At Alzheimer's Research UK (ARUK), we fund the highest quality research to advance understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of Alzheimer's and other dementias, bringing us closer to new treatments. We are seeing more and more research applications submitted to us, so to enhance our evaluation and support of these, we are updating our grants review processes and policies. These will help us to create a more robust, transparent, and inclusive system, ensuring we continue to support the most promising projects whilst reducing the burden on researchers.
Key Changes To The Process
Historically, ARUK has relied on external written peer reviews for all grant applications. This is in part due to our commitment to the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) principles of peer review. However, we are recognising that this places a significant burden on the research community, especially as we are seeing an increasing number of grant applications. To address this, we have been reflecting on our review processes and are now implementing a more efficient process to reduce the impact on researchers and allow us to focus on the best possible research. AMRC has also recognised the impact of written peer review on the community. They’ve recently removed this requirement, instead focusing on in-depth reviews from experts in other ways.
To ensure we are still appropriately reviewing applications, we are evolving and expanding the structure of our Grant Review Board. And we will still seek external written peer review when needed.
We are also expanding our support for clinical research by offering more opportunities for clinical grants, including fellowships and clinical add-on studies.
Impact On Applicants
One significant improvement is the reduction in turnaround time for fellowship applications, now down to a few months from the previous 6-8 months. Small grants like PhD scholarships and Pilot projects will have funding decisions within a few weeks, rather than months. This means applicants will receive funding decisions sooner rather than being stuck in the review process, creating unnecessary delays to projects or further grant application submissions.
We will continue to conduct thorough reviews with a diverse panel of experts, including those with lived experience. Currently, only applications that involve human volunteers are reviewed by people with lived experience of dementia. But in the near future we will be expanding this so that all applications will be lay reviewed. This ensures that each application is assessed comprehensively, maintaining the highest standards of evaluation.
We will continue to evolve our processes and welcome feedback from the research community. We are also expanding our grant review board and invite interested individuals to email research@alzheimersresearchuk.org for more information.
Research guidelines and policies
Useful policies and guidelines relevant to all of our grant schemes.
Dementia Frontiers Fund review panel
The Dementia Frontiers Fund review panel is composed of world-leading experts in dementia research
Research Committee
This distinguished group of some of the world’s leading dementia research experts reviews the applications we receive to most of our grant schemes before making recommendations to our Trustees.
Clinical Committee
Our Clinical Committee consist of some of the world’s leading dementia research experts
The Alzheimer’s Research UK Drug Discovery Alliance Advisory Group
The ADAG is composed of drug discovery experts from both industry and academia, based in the UK and beyond, and participates in the annual reviews of ARUK’s Drug Discovery institutes, who together form the ARUK Drug Discovery Alliance.