Your role as Internal Reviewer is to conduct a scholarly peer review and provide constructive written feedback intended to improve the quality of the researcher's grant application.
SPARC IR is not possible without you, the reviewers. Thank you for sharing your time and expertise.
SPARC Internal Review (IR) Steps for Reviewers
- Notification of interest and confirmation of match
- Receive grant materials
- Provide feedback
- Submit sign-off form, and receive gift certificate and recognition letter
STEP 1: Notification of interest and confirmation of match
If there is a match to your expertise, you will receive an email request including the title of the application, a one-page research summary, and a recommended timeline for the review. If you are interested in becoming a SPARC Internal Reviewer, please email sparc.ir@ubc.ca. Reviewers receive a $100 gift certificate for the UBC Bookstore or UBC Food Services and a recognition letter send to your Department Head. By actively supporting IR, you are promoting a culture of mentorship and cooperation across the UBC research community.
STEP 2: Receive grant materials
If you agree to be the reviewer, you can expect to receive well-developed grant materials approximately 5 weeks before the external competition deadline. The materials will be sent electronically in Word format unless a hard copy is requested.
STEP 3: Provide feedback
You have approximately two weeks to conduct the review. At minimum, you are expected to provide written feedback (i.e., track changes, summary report), taking into account the formal evaluation/selection criteria used in the competition. It is also a good idea to provide the researcher with a recommendatation for the overall state of the grant - for example, "ready to submit", "requires minor revisions", "requires major revisions" or "requires reconceptualization" - which serves to summarize your feedback. When complete, send your written feedback to sparc.ir@ubc.ca and SPARC will send the comments to the applicant. SPARC highly recommends a follow-up meeting to allow the applicant to ask questions and receive clarification as required.
STEP 4: Submit sign-off form, and receive gift certificate and recognition letter
Complete the Internal Reviewer Sign-Off Form and submit to sparc.ir@ubc.ca in order to generate your gift certificate and recognition letter. SPARC will notify you via email once your gift card and letters are in the mail. SPARC is also pleased to provide a support letter for your tenure and promotion meeting which summarizes your contributions to the IR program. To request a support letter, please contact us.
For reviewers providing feedback to researchers with mandatory Internal Review requirements, SPARC provides a copy of the Reviewer Sign-Off Form to the Faculty to confirm the requirement has been met.
SPARC provides gift certificates for a maximum of two reviewers per application, and a maximum of two reviews per reviewer, per competition. As these gift certificates are considered taxable benefits, they are reported to Finance for inclusion on T4 forms.
