The Genesis Oncology Trust has a nine-person Assessment Committee comprising clinical and radiation oncologists, biomedical researchers, a psychologist and a senior palliative care nursing specialist.
About six weeks after receiving and reading all the applications this committee meets to discuss which should be entered into the second stage of the review process. This is decided by a majority vote – and a tied vote results in the application being forwarded to the next stage. Past experience indicates that the majority of applications will pass through this stage. Those applications that enter the second stage of the review are divided up amongst the Assessment Committee members according to their expertise and over the following six weeks they write reports on each of their assigned applications. Where applicable (primarily research projects) two or three external reviews will also be obtained.
For the August and October grant rounds the second Assessment Committee meeting will take place in early December and the reports on each application are presented and debated. After the debate each member applies a confidential ranking to the application (1 to 10). At the end of the meeting a list of applications ranked from highest to lowest is produced and this is presented to the Genesis Oncology Trust Board in early December. A cut off for funding is suggested by the Assessment Committee, but the final decision is made by the Board.
Applicants are notified of outcomes by email in the first instance, followed by a letter with feedback if appropriate.
The current Assessment Committee membership is:
Prof Bruce Baguley – biomedical cancer research, drug development
Dr Mike Berridge – biomedical cancer research, immunology
Dr Michael Jameson* – clinical oncology, research, teaching
Dr James Paxton – pharmacology, research, teaching
Dr Katrina Sharples – clinical trials, statistics
Ms Jan Nichols – palliative care delivery, research, teaching
Dr Ann Richardson* – epidemiology, public health
Dr Graham Stevens – radiation oncology, research, teaching
Dr Gail Tripp – psychology, research, teaching (based in Japan)
Prof Bill Wilson, Auckland Cancer Research Laboratories, provides reports on postgraduate scholarship applications
* also members of Trust Board
