EPSRC Peer College Review - The OR Society

Find out how becoming a peer reviewer can further enhance your career

What is the EPSRC Peer Review College?

When an academic submits a funding application to EPSRC, the application is reviewed by experts in the field. Many of the experts used are members of the EPSRC Peer Review College.

Why join the College?

The EPSRC Peer Review college is interested in receiving more applications from academics with OR expertise to join the college.

At The OR Society, we are on a mission to address this, which is why we are calling on our community of OR academics to update their Je-S details to ensure Operational Research specifically is included as a specialism, and to also join the Peer Review College.

Dr Alain Zemkoho - Why I'm joining the EPSRC Peer Review College

Edmund Burke

" Joining the EPSRC Peer Review College provides OR specialists with the opportunity to engage with EPSRC’s research grant assessment process. A larger cohort of OR college members will raise the visibility of OR and facilitate greater OR involvement in determining future strategic direction. As a building block, it’s critical that more OR experts can be identified via their Je-S profile so that OR expertise can feed into the peer review process."

Edmund Burke – Past President of the OR Society, Member of EPSRC Peer Review College

Sarah Harman

" Peer review is an extremely important and valuable part of UKRI Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funding system and we are always looking for new members to be part of our peer review college – and for existing members to continue to take part. We understand people are busy and have time and resource constraints, but without timely and robust peer review, funding decisions will be delayed. Becoming a member not only supports us with our peer review activities and ensures reviews are undertaken by those with appropriate expertise, reviewing proposals can also help members to understand how UKRI’s funding processes operate, providing valuable insight into writing even better proposals. We welcome self-nomination and offer training to support participation. Your support, as always, is greatly appreciated."

Sarah Harman – Head of Mathematical Sciences at EPSRC

The benefits

Being involved in the EPSRC Peer Review College not only benefits the wider OR community but also gives you an opportunity to enhance your knowledge on research funding and UKRI/EPSRC strategy, boost your credibility, and network with your peers.

As a full member of the EPSRC Peer Review College, you will receive:

training and guidance to help you better understand the funding and application review process, which you can also apply to your own applications
regular updates via newsletters and other means about changes to EPSRC policy and processes that may impact your role
opportunities to network with fellow academics via meetings and otherwise
recognition for the amount of proposals you have reviewed on your ORCID profile

Your responsibilities

Upon joining you will complete a 45-minute training course to ensure you understand the review process fully.

Following this, you are requested to:

provide informed, objective, and timely reviews via the online Joint electronic Submission (Je-S) system, within 21 days after you accept the request
sit on assessment or moderation panels
keep your Je-S details up to date, particularly those elements relating to your availability to undertake reviews and describe your areas of expertise
keep up to date with developments that may affect your role as a member of the college, for example through attendance at EPSRC organised events, its website, and its newsletters

You will be asked to review a maximum of 8 applications within any 12-month period, yet you are in not obliged to review every application that comes your way.

If you are unable to fulfil a request, you simply need to notify EPSRC as soon as possible after receiving the request. This ensures there is no adverse delay on an application.

Read the case studies

Below are three case studies that highlight real-life experiences of joining the EPSRC Peer Review College and how it can enhance your career. Click their names to read the case study.

Kerem Akartunali (of the University of Strathclyde) is a member of the college and shares his experience of this worthwhile opportunity.

We spoke to Alain Zemkoho, an Associate Professor at the University of Southampton about his decision to join the EPSRC Peer Review College

Read why Kathy Kotiadis a Reader in Management Science/ Operational Research at Kent Business School joined the EPSRC Peer Review College.

How to get started

First and foremost, if you haven’t already, please create a J-es account here.
Already have an account? Update your J-es registration to highlight OR in your areas of interest, in addition to your specialisms (i.e. Simulation). You can do this via your online portal by adding OR to the “add research areas” section.
Finally, once you have updated J-es, you can apply to the EPSRC Peer Review College here. The application takes just 10-15 minutes to complete and you will hear back within weeks.

The Joint electronic Submission (Je-S) system

The Je-S system is an important tool for anyone interested in peer reviewing and it is recommended that anyone, whether or not they are a member of the college, updates their research areas in their account to highlight that they have OR expertise. Reviewers can now link their Je-S account to their Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) account, allowing them to keep a digital record of the reviews carried out for EPSRC. This new feature helps members receive more recognition and visibility for their work as peer reviewers.

Please note that the Je-S system is no longer used for funding services, but is still used for college membership.

Watch the EPSRC's 5 steps of the peer review process

The new criteria as of November 2023 is:

vision of the project
approach to the project
capability of the applicant or applicants and the project team to deliver the project
resources requested to do the project
ethics and responsible research and innovation considerations of the project

(New Video to follow)

EPSRC Impact Roadshow

This presentation covers the 2021 advice on presenting the impact of your research in a EPSRC proposal. The slides include the full transcript.

The criteria names have changed since 2021, please see the 5 updated criteria above.

You will be able to find details of assessment questions and criteria under the ‘Application questions’ heading in the ‘How to apply’ section of the grant you wish to apply to.