Success Stories

Client goals and how they achieved them:

 

 

 

 

Peer-review framework & process for diversity and volume.	Canadian Foundation for Innovation
We worked with a President and Senior V.P. of a national organization funded by the federal government to provide research & innovation infrastructure grants. They wanted to establish an application and evaluation framework and process that would achieve their mandate.   Establishing an application and evaluation framework and process to achieve their mandate was difficult because the government had legislated multiple objectives. He and his senior vice-president recognized that using traditional approaches and methods would not provide the capability necessary to effectively address all objectives, nor evaluate the volume of applications in a timely manner. They needed a way to translate these objectives into criteria and a framework that would achieve their objectives while handling the flow (processing) of thousands of diverse applications and respecting the time and effort of both applicants and reviewers.   The organization was able to review over 1,500 applications and confidently recommend those that will contribute to achieving all of the organization’s legislated objectives – in roughly half the time compared to tradition methods.   A national columnist wrote about the framework and process, stating, “My contacts in three provinces said the funding program was being superbly managed. The procedure for selecting worthy projects was transparent and fair. The distribution of money seemed about right between big and small institutions and among the provinces. Praise like that does not come everyday”. J.R. (Ron) McCullough - Licensed ProGrid Consultant since 1996 Contract: rmccullough@progrid.info
Improving the allocation of funds.	Materials & Manufacturing Centre of Excellence
We worked with the Managing Directors of two merging industry centres of excellence for research & commercialization who wanted to allocate available funds to different research disciplines and industry sectors.   Allocating funds was difficult because it required comparing the value to be derived from diverse, often very complex, technologies. They foresaw the difficulty that committees would have in trying to make comparisons of “apples & oranges”. They needed to develop a framework under which applications could be judged independently of the technology that they supported.   Since implementation, the selection committees of the merged centres found the framework and support tools significantly valuable in enabling them to compare criterion-by-criterion ratings of diverse technologies as well as the overall ratings and confidently apply a “value for money” judgement as part of their recommendations. Clem W. Bowman - Founder and Licensed ProGrid Consultant since 1991 Contract: cbowman@progrid.info
Improving peer-review turnaround time.	Foundation for Medical Research
We worked with a President of a provincial government medical research fund for graduates who wanted to improve the review and selection process.   Improving the process was difficult because the volume of applications was increasing causing committees to extend the duration of their meetings or spend less time reviewing each application. Review committee turnover increased, lowering the consistency in the application of criteria within and between competitions. This placed an additional burden on administrative staff, recruiting and training review committee members. He and his executive team needed a way to reduce the time it took to review an application and increase consistency in the application of criteria.   We provided him with a process for evaluating applications that enabled reviewers to complete the same number of reviews in roughly half the time. Turnover quickly reduced and consistency and comparability dramatically increased.   Read client's published article» John Kramers - Licensed ProGrid Consultant since 2000 Contract: jkramers@progrid.info
Improving comparability between competitions and programs	Medical Technology Commercialization Program
We worked with a President and committee of a public medical technology commercialization program who wanted to compare the peer-review information from all preceding stages in funding of a proposal.   Comparing past peer-review information for a proposal was difficult because the information was not standardized and did not sufficient detail to concerning the underlying project’s progress. He and the committee could not determine if the factors within the control of the candidate at each stage where performed sufficiently to warrant further support. They needed a way to evaluate and compare influential factors in a consistent manner at each stage.   We provided them with capability to separate the factors which the candidate could control and those they couldn’t, evaluate proposals in a consistent manner at every stage and compare progress at each successive level. This improved the conduct of due diligence and setting of milestones, the development of creative funding agreements and constructive feedback to applicants. Clem W. Bowman - Founder and Licensed ProGrid Consultant since 1991 Contract: cbowman@progrid.info
Aligning employees & stakeholders with organizational goals.	Provincial Ministry of Natural Resources
We worked with the science business coordinator of a provincial ministry responsible for natural resources who wanted to align the goals of the organization with the personal career plans of the scientists who were responsible for achieving those goals. Aligning the scientists’ goals with those of the organization was difficult because their individual objectives appeared, and were believed by many, to be incompatible.   These objectives were, the need to conduct scientific research of the highest quality, and the need to put the science in a form used by practitioners in the field and to get it to them in an effective way, i.e. technology transfer.   The problem that he and his team face was that traditional approaches did not ensure that high-performance of research staff in meeting corporate objectives is directly linked to performance and promotion in exactly the same context as research project selection. He needed a process to ensure that projects selected must not only be good strategically for the organization but research staff must be able to see clear benefits for each of them in carrying out the research projects.   We provided him with a framework to not only select a portfolio of projects that best delivered the full range of strategic expectations, but also to evaluate every project annually and at its completion to enable an end to end portfolio management approach. The solution became the cornerstone of their performance management system for science activities. J.R. (Ron) McCullough - Licensed ProGrid Consultant since 1996 Contract: rmccullough@progrid.info