The Research Awards and Prizes Assessment Process
The Vice-Chancellor's and RMIT Research Awards and Prizes are highly competitive and as such, in assessing the applications we take steps to ensure transparency, fairness and confidentiality.
Assessment panels
The Research Awards Panel is a subcommittee of the DVC R&I Executive group and is responsible for providing advice and recommendations in relation to the annual Research Awards process.
The assessment panel for each award and prize is led by a panel of academic peers, senior leaders and subject matter experts who then make recommendations to the DVC R&I for approval of recipients of the awards/prizes. To ensure procedural fairness, each panel consists of 3 to 4 assessors. If any panel member has a conflict of interest in relation to a specific nominee/s, they are required to remove themselves from the discussions and voting for that nominee as per the RMIT Conflict of Interest Policy.
Each nomination is assessed against the following:
- Eligibility
- Selection criteria responses
- Research outputs
- Statements of support
Also taken into consideration is each nominees Full Time Equivalent (FTE) research load and Achievement Relative to Opportunity (ARtO).
Where appropriate, the panel may propose moving a nominee to an alternative award or prize category and/or sub-category, if there is consensus among members that the nomination would fit better in the alternative category. The category change must be agreed to by the nominee before any action is taken.
The panel may also call for additional information from an award nominee to supplement information already provided.
Following the initial panel discussions and ranking, recommendations will be made to the DVC R&I for approval of recipients of the awards/prizes.
Once approved, nominees will then be notified of the outcomes.