I have been assessing InnovateUK and similar government agency funding competitions since 2011. To date, I have reviewed:
- – 140 Competitions.
- – 1,395 Applications.
- – In excess of £649 million project value.
What is really missing is a much more informed Assessor Dashboard. Current Dashboard shows:
- – My profile (assessor details), including declarations.
- – Current and upcoming competitions.
After a competition assessment ends, the data disappears, leaving no trace of which competitions you assessed.
Here’s my wishlist:
- – Ability to invoice through the Dashboard instead of creating Google Sheet invoices, downloading and emailing them. In fact, a more advanced version of this will not even need invoicing. Dashboard knows when you have completed assessing a competition and it ought to automatically make the payment. This will save significant time wastage, double-keying effort and errors, and overcome human mistakes such as forgetting to key in a received invoice.
- – Assessor scoring performance: Out of the 1395 applications I reviewed, wouldn’t it be great to know the number of applicants who secured funding? This will help to self-reflect and improve how one assesses a competition. Let’s say I assessed 20 applications in one competition, with 10 below 80% (group 1), 5 between 80% and 85% (group 2) and another 5 between 85% and 90% (group 3). Of these, which ones received funding? If all in group 3 received funding, job welldone. If some in group 1 received funding, then there is a scoring issue between other assessors and me. In this case, perhaps there are grounds for me to improve in how I assess.
- – Allow further research into the applicant, including visiting websites, LinkedIn profiles, and Companies House records. Reviewing applications simply based on the application is sometimes counterproductive.
Image credits: Gemini.google.com
