Reviewers

ZonMw uses knowledge to realise a good health for everybody. We connect people and organisations for working on relevant societal and scientific issues that influence health, care and well-being. We programme and fund health research and innovation in care, encourage the use of the knowledge developed and define the areas where knowledge is needed.

ZonMw stimulates research and innovation in health, healthcare and well-being through targeted grant programmes. Applicants can submit their grant application if it matches one of the ongoing calls.

More information: About ZonMw.

All grant applications received by ZonMw are assessed on their relevance and quality. For the quality assessments, we rely on reviewers: external, independent experts.

Through our quality criteria, we set requirements for various aspects of the applications we receive, including clarity, scope and the originality of the research question or objective. We also assess the plan of action, feasibility and the project team or researcher.

The number of reviewers assigned to assess an application depends on the grant sum. Reviewers must have relevant expertise and may not be involved in the applications in any way. They never assess more than a few applications.

Rebuttal
We anonymise the reviewers’ quality assessments and forward them to the applicants, who are then invited to submit a response in writing (rebuttal). In their response, applicants can reply to the reviewers’ queries and respond to any criticisms.

To learn more about the assessment procedure, consult the following resources:

• Our Assessment page
• Our Applying for funding in 10 steps page
• The procedure brochure for reviewers (in Dutch)

Our procedures require strict confidentiality throughout the entire assessment process. This means that reviewers’ assessments are always anonymised, and that all applications must be handled in the strictest of confidence.

ZonMw allows the use of AI, provided it is used responsibly, safely and with a clear purpose. A human always remains responsible. AI never assesses or decides on applications by itself. ZonMw follows the guidance of the European Research Council (ERC) on the use of AI in grant proposal evaluation.

Allowed

• Improving the language and grammar of the review, without sharing any content from the application.
• Translating the review, under the same condition.
• Searching for background information on the topic, without entering text from the application.
• Turning own notes into running text, only with a secure tool running on your own computer, and without AI adding its own judgement.

Not allowed

• Entering an application or referee report, or parts of it, into an AI tool.
• Having AI summarise a proposal.
• Having AI assess the quality, originality or methodology.
• Having AI draft a review.
• Having AI check whether your review misses any points.

An application is confidential, and the judgement must come from a person. That is why an application may not be entered into an AI tool, not even in part and not even without names. Please note: translation tools such as DeepL and Google Translate are also AI. Translating your own review is allowed; translating the application itself is not.

If you agree to assess a grant application, ZonMw assumes that you are able to do so independently. Our Code for Dealing with Personal Interests explains how a relationship between you and a grant applicant might compromise your independence. If you have any questions regarding this, feel free to contact us.

Please also inform us if you consider yourself insufficiently qualified to make an expert judgment on the quality of an application.

We are aware that other organisations may offer evaluators some form of remuneration. However, as we do not want reviewers to review other people’s work for any reason other than scientific interest, we have made a conscious decision not to pay for assessments. We are fully aware that assessing applications is a time-consuming activity, and we are very grateful to our reviewers for their generosity.

We use the My ZonMw digital counter for the assessment of grant applications.