Thank you to all our members for your support and patience while we reviewed your submissions to AMRC’s Expert Review Audit. Feedback letters and documents have now been sent to the member of staff who completed the audit survey, plus the charity's formal representative if these are different people. Please confirm receipt of your feedback, or let us know if you have not received it, by contacting us at [email protected].   You can view our FAQs here.

What is the expert review audit?

Every five years, AMRC collects information about our members’ expert review processes so that we can assess them against our membership requirements and our six principles of expert review.

It is an opportunity for AMRC full members to take stock of processes, get guidance on how these reflect current best practice, and receive recognition for excellence in expert review.

It ensures that our members continue to meet our high standards for decision-making in research funding, supporting the best research and researchers as science and the research landscape change.

Who must take part?

All current full AMRC member charities must participate in the audit.

How does it work?

On 3^rd April 2025 each participating charity received a Survey Monkey link along with a PDF version of the Audit questionnaire to prepare their answers offline. This survey closed 22^nd May 2025.

Once submitted, the survey responses are reviewed by the Expert Review Committee, comprising member charity and external representatives. They assess the responses against our membership criteria and principles of expert review. Each response is assigned a lead and secondary reviewer, both of whom mark the audit questionnaire against a marking scheme produced by AMRC.

The committee then meets to, where necessary, discuss variance in opinion and what feedback should be provided to charities.

Charities will be contacted individually about their audit outcome, in addition to receiving supporting feedback by March 2026. All charities that pass will be sent a certificate and an Expert Review Audit 2025 pass logo to display on their website and other resources.

Why do we audit our charities’ expert review processes?

Expert review is currently the best way for medical research charities to decide what research to fund. Done properly, it allows charities to support the best research and the best researchers. This, in turn, can help charities deliver impact from their funding and benefits to patients. The audit ensures members can achieve this high standard in research funding.

This rigorous assessment on becoming a full AMRC member alongside five yearly audits, means AMRC membership is seen as a mark of quality.  This gives confidence to potential partners and allows our members to fund in collaboration through various government initiatives. For example:

• University research funded by charities is eligible for the Charity Research Support Fund (CRSF);
• Some costs associated with clinical research in the NHS can be covered through the AcoRD agreement;
• Charities can access a streamlined application process for NIHR Non-commercial Partner status.

The audit enables AMRC to support our members in taking stock of their processes, provide guidance on how these processes reflect current best practice and recognise excellence in expert review among our membership.

Training

We held two webinars on the survey and the Expert Review process. Except for Q&A sections, the slides and recording of these webinars are available to full members. Please contact [email protected] to access these. 

Expert Review Audit 2020 outcomes

AMRC audits out members every five years. Our previous audit was in 2020.  At the time, 142 members were asked to take part in the audit. 94% of members demonstrated that they were meeting our principles and passed the audit. Amongst the remaining 6%, the main reason that the charities were not able to demonstrate compliance was that they had stopped funding research, which meant that membership was no longer suitable for them.

Audit committee

Committee chair: Simon Denegri OBE, Chair of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration Clinical Trials Unit Network Executive Group and previous Executive Director of the Academy of Medical Sciences

Committee members:

• Tania Wheeler, Research Manager, Action for A-T
• Simon Vincent, Chief Scientific Officer, Breast Cancer Now
• Dan Burkwood, Director of Research Operations and Communications, Cancer Research UK
• Sagair Hussain, Director of Research, DEBRA
• Aoife Regan, Director of Charitable Programmes and Impact, Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity
• Lynn Turner, Head of Research, Guts UK
• Elaine Davies, Director of Research Operations, Kidney Research UK
• Susanna Roberts, Senior Research Manager, Medical Research Foundation
• Sarah Collinge, Head of Funding Operations, Medical Research Council
• Emma Gray, Assistant Director of Research, MS Society
• Kate Adcock, Director of Research and Innovation, Muscular Dystrophy UK
• Maria Hassard, Assistant Director, Research Programmes Application and Funding, National Institute for Health and Care Research
• David Dexter, Associate Research Director, Parkinson’s UK
• Simon Grieveson, Assistant Director of Research, Prostate Cancer UK
• Ralph Holme, Director of Research, Royal National Institute for Deaf People
• Emma Thompson, Head of Research, The Brain Tumour Charity
• Vasanthi James, Head of Programmes, The Eve Appeal
• Sanjay Thakrar, Director of Research, Vivensa Foundation
• Lorraine Monteiro, Associate Director, Funding Management, Wellcome

AMRC Staff Team:

• Chris Macdonald, Director of Research and Impact, AMRC

All members comply with AMRC’s conflict of interest policy and committee Terms of Reference.

Who to contact

• Sarah Hartwell ([email protected]) – Research Funding Manager