CIFellows 2020 For the Record

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Appendix O: Charge to CIFellows 2020 Reviewers

June 25, 2020

Thank you for agreeing to review to help computing’s young people! Please see the CI Fellows 2020 website regarding the program’s goals to strengthen the computing community by enhancing the academic career development of dozens of new PhDs affected by COVID-19 through two-year postdoc fellowships. The review process begins with you and then is followed by a selection and steering committee evaluation. Those committees–not you–will balance benefits for the field broadly (all areas under the NSF CISE umbrella), spanning many types of academic institutions and sub-disciplines, including computing education and broadening participation.  

Your reviews are due by COB Thursday, July 9, 2020!

Your job as a reviewer is to evaluate each proposal’s merit in providing career development toward the applicant becoming a fantastic computing community member.  You will be evaluating the applicant’s past record, planned research, suitability of mentee/mentor match, and recommendation letters. The application materials are succinct for everyone’s sake. Both numerical scores and textual comments are important as input and documentation for decisions, but there will be no feedback to the applicants. Once your review is complete, your work is done, as there will be no online discussion period or reviewer meeting. Some issues to consider:

  1. Declare a conflict of interest soon if by NSF rules you have a COI with the applicant or mentor to a Selection Committee Member.
  2. Evaluate plans w.r.t. goals, e.g., a plan targeting a teaching school will look different than one targeting an R1 research university.
  3. Evaluate whether the applicant and mentor have developed a real, not pro forma, plan: one that explicitly and effectively addresses the mentee’s development as a faculty member.
  4. If you get assigned two applications from the same applicant but with different mentors, evaluate each application separately (at most one will be awarded).
  5. Give low rankings–with a comment explaining why–for applications that violate submission rules, e.g., page limits.
  6. As in an NSF panel, you may be reviewing proposals outside your specific research area.
  7. Have everything completed by COB Thursday, July 9, 2020!

Image sent with email. Displays review form information (see Appendix N).