We are thrilled to announce that PREreview will work with Open Research Funders Group (ORFG) and Health Research Alliance (HRA) to develop Open Grant Reviewers, a mentoring and training program for grant reviewers founded on principles of equity, openness, and social justice.

At PREreview, we are passionate about re-imagining a scholarly peer review process where all researchers are trained, valued, and recognized for their contributions to advancing knowledge.

We believe that scholarly peer review, just as any other process instituted and conducted by people, is naturally influenced by the biases of people, it is subject to the same power structures that reinforce the disenfranchisement and exclusion of individuals, groups of individuals, as well as entire nations. Thus, we also believe that no real change will happen to scholarly communication—even in the name of openness—if we don't address these issues in the context of our work.

With Open Reviewers, our training and mentoring program that empowers early-career researchers (ECRs) to contribute to scholarly peer review, we engage researchers in conversations around how systems of oppression manifest in the peer review process, how to identify how our own biases inevitably affect how we review and how to address it in service of better peer review.

While Open Reviewers in its current format is meant to train researchers in how to conduct manuscript peer review, much of its content and format can be adapted to other forms of reviewing, such as grant reviewing.

It is in this capacity that PREreview is collaborating with the ORFG and HRA, organizations who have already begun the groundwork towards the development of an Open & Equitable Model Funding Program, a new model of grantmaking to make both the process of grantmaking and the resulting research outputs more transparent, equitable, and inclusive. The program will design a range of interventions across the grantmaking cycle, including how funding schemes are developed, socialized, reviewed, overseen, supported, and evaluated. The plan is to pilot these interventions with a cohort of philanthropies in 2022 and 2023.

On the occasion of Open Access Week, the HRA and ORFG are now inviting the broader community to share their views and provide recommendations for the project via this quick survey available in English, español, and français. Read more about this effort and the call to participation here.

Join us!

We are seeking a Program Manager and Trainer to facilitate this collaboration and lead the design and delivery of the Open Grant Reviewers mentoring and training program.

The application for this position is now closed.