Grants: 15 Agencies Seeking Grant Reviewers
Tuesday, April 24th, 2012 | Uncategorized | 4 Comments
Would you like to increase your chances of getting funded by 30%? That’s what the research says will happen if you first become a federal grant reviewer, then rotate off the review panel and submit your proposal to that grant program at the next funding cycle.
You can easily become a grant reviewer by tweaking your resume to match the priorities of the grantmaking agency and then applying online. Below you will find a list of 15 federal agencies currently seeking grant reviewers, along with a broad description of the type of expertise they seek.
Administration for Children and Family Services. Expertise: broad range of issues involve children, youth, and families
Administration on Developmental Disabilities. Expertise: developmental disabilities
Corporate for National and Community Service. Expertise: service at multiple levels
Department of Labor. Expertise: delivering workforce services
Health Resources and Services Administration. Expertise: health professions training, HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, organ transplantation, primary care for underserved people, rural health
Institute of Museum and Library Services. Expertise: museums, libraries
National Endowment for the Humanities. Expertise: One or more of the humanities fields
National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Expertise: Agricultural systems, biotechnology and genomics, food and nutrition and health
National Institutes of Health. Expertise: broad range of biomedical health topics
National Science Foundation. Expertise: a broad range of basic science, technology, engineering and mathematics topics
Office of Community Services and Office of Public Health and Science. Expertise: community services, public health
Office of Justice Programs. Expertise: broad range of law enforcement issues
Office of Post Secondary Education. Expertise: a broad range of information involving higher education
Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools. Expertise: alcohol, tobacco, and other drug prevention; character education; civic education; emergency management, disaster response, and school security; school-based mental health services; school-based health and wellness; and violence prevention
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration. Expertise: substance abuse, mental health
This list addresses federal opportunities to review proposals as of April, 2012. This list changes often; the two useful search terms to explore other options are “grant panelist” and “peer reviewer” Opportunities also exist for state government agencies and private foundations. Typically, proposal reviewers are selected either on the basis of having received a prior grant from that agency or through a self-nomination process. Agencies are often looking for proposal reviewers. A NEH program officer told us recently they use approximately 10,000 reviewers annually to critic submitted proposals. When serving as a reviewer, you will learn many things to do – and not do – as you write your next proposal. Update your resume so it reflects the values of the grantmakers for which you wish to review, send it to the program officer following the instructions on their web sites. Finally, in your response to this blog, please post other grant opportunities that you know about.
1)To whom should I send my cv, at an agency to be considered to be a reviewer? Secondly, is there any payment?
Thank you for giving us this list,
Susan Lepre, PhD
lepres@msn.com
Susan — thanks for your query. If you plan to become a reviewer to one of the 15 grantmakers cited in the blog, then follow the instructions on the Web site for submission of the CV. There are slight differences among the grantmakers. If you plan to become a reviewer for a grantmaker who doesn’t specify a reviewer application protocol, then you can send your CV to the program officer along with a note saying “I have expertise in (insert subject matter) as evidenced by the attached resume. I’d be happy to serve as a proposal reviewer.” Some offer no payment, others offer a nominal payment. To give you some concrete examples: on one recent occasion I received $175 for each proposal reviewed. On another occasion, I received $200 per day. If the review process required me to travel, all expenses were paid. You do not become a reviewer for the money, but rather for the insights and networking that accompanies it. Hope this helps.
Thanks so much for this information. As a public health professional, that is new to grant writing, becoming a grant reviewer would provide wonderful opportunities to learn my craft.
Do follow the “self-nomination” process and you’ll be amazed at the insights you will gain.