For the assessment process, a programme committee and referees are deployed. The committee and/or referees may include a patient.
Committee members are appointed in their personal capacity and do not participate on behalf of an organisation. In the composition of the committee, the expertise of members is taken into account. Efforts will be made to include expertise from universities and other knowledge institutions and a broad perspective on research, education and practice. The programme committee will judge on relevance in terms of achieving the objectives of the programme.
The quality of a grant application is assessed by independent external referees. They are anonymous.
In programme committees, the views of patients are represented through the expertise of members. The procedure may also include assessment by patient panels. These panels will assess applications in terms of their relevance for their own situation.
At ZonMw, a strict policy applies for dealing with personal interests. This policy prevents possible personsal interests regarding an application.