Pilot Grant Review Criteria for Community/Outreach Applications

Significance

  • Does the project address an important agricultural health and safety problem or a critical barrier to the prevention of illness or injury of agricultural workers?
  • If the aims of the project are achieved, how will community technical capability, and/or community-based agricultural health practice be improved?
  • How will successful completion of the aims change the services, approaches, and methods used by community partners to prevent agricultural illness or injury?

Investigator(s)

  • Are the proposed project leaders well suited to the project?
  • If previously without outreach project experience, do they have appropriate competence and training or have they partnered with an outreach specialist?
  • If established, have they demonstrated an ongoing record of accomplishments that have advanced the field of agricultural health and safety either locally or nationally?

Innovation

  • Does the application challenge and seek to shift current community-based agricultural health and safety practice paradigms by using new concepts, approaches, methodologies, or interventions?

Approach

  • Are the overall strategy, approach, and evaluation methods well-reasoned and appropriate to accomplish the specific aims of the project?
  • Are potential problems, alternative strategies, and benchmarks for success presented?
  • If the project is in the early stages of development, will the strategy establish feasibility and will potentially risky aspects be managed?
  • If the project involves research on human subjects, are the plans for 1) protection of human subjects from research risks, and 2) inclusion of minorities and members of both sexes/genders, as well as the inclusion of children, justified in terms of the public health goals and strategy proposed?

Environment

  • Will the community environment in which the project will be done contribute to the likelihood of success?
  • Has the applicant documented access to agricultural workers necessary to implement the proposed project?

Additional Review Considerations

  • Is the budget and time to completion justified and reasonable in relation to the proposed project?
  • Other than Center funding, are other resources available to the investigators to allow for successful completion of the project?
  • Does the proposal promote the collaboration of researchers in the nine-state region?
  • Do the investigators have a plan for broader or ongoing application of the proposed services, approaches, and methods beyond those funded by the pilot project?
  • Does the proposal include letters of support from named collaborating individuals and/or organizations?