One of the best professional development opportunities for grant writers is to serve as a peer reviewer, reading and scoring competitive grant proposals. It is extremely helpful to see the back-end of the process and will help you better write to your audience. Federal agencies are a great place to look for peer review opportunities.
In an upcoming Quarterly Professional Development webcast for our members, we will walk participants through the process of finding and registering for peer review opportunities. In the meantime, check out the latest peer reviewer solicitation from the Department of Education:
“The U.S. Department of Education (Department) is in the process of recruiting peer reviewers to evaluate grant applications submitted for the fiscal year (FY) 2017 Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) and Strengthening Institutions Program (SIP) programs. Please note peer reviewer expectations for the both programs are listed below. For additional information on the HSI program, please go to https://www2.ed.gov/programs/idueshsi/index.html?src=rt. For additional information on the SIP program, please go to: https://www2.ed.gov/programs/iduestitle3a/index.html.
How to Apply to Serve as a Peer Reviewer:
Individuals interested in reviewing applications for HSI or SIP must complete the peer reviewer prerequisites by April 9, 2017. Individuals that do not complete the prerequisite process will not be considered for panel assignments. To complete the prerequisites please follow the steps below:
- Visit and log in to http://reviewgrants.com/is/reader to complete your reader profile and availability.
- Next, review and acknowledge the role and level of commitment of a peer reviewer.
- Finally, view the Department of Education G5 PowerPoint presentation and verify you are a registered G5 user. G5 is the Department’s data and information management system for grants.
Upon completion of the peer reviewer prerequisites you will receive a confirmation email. We will notify you via email, no later than Monday, May 1, 2017 if we select you as a peer reviewer for either of these competitions. At that time, selected peer reviewers will be sent additional information about the e-Reader review process, including information on how to participate in the Peer Reviewer Orientation conference call for each program.”