Conflict of interest policy

All external reviewers invited to review an application are asked to declare if they have any vested interest (organisational, collaborative, personal or other) in the application.

All RGAP members are required to sign a confidentiality agreement when they join the panel. As a condition of membership all members agree to the following:

• not to use or disclose any information obtained in the course of membership for any purpose other than considering the relevant grant application under review

• not to disclose any knowledge of applications under review obtained through their membership on other charities panels or otherwise to other GAP members

• not to discuss with applicants or reviewers any information in relation to the review of a specific application, or offer opinions on the chances of success or failure.

When a RGAP member is connected with a submitted application, he or she must declare a conflict of interest and withdraw from the discussions relating to that application. The panel member does not receive any documents pertaining to that application, learn the identity of its reviewers or receive reviewers’ reports and does not score the application. He or she must retire from the meeting when that application is discussed.

In cases where a member is uncertain as to whether a conflict of interest exists he/she must discuss this matter with the charity’s grant administration team and report to the Chair.

The Chair of the RGAP can neither apply to the charity for funding nor score applications.