Assignments

An assignment gives one assessor one application to assess. You make assignments while you set up an assessment round, and change them after it is published.

Labels that name Application and Assessor use your organisation's own term if you've renamed it.

Assign before publishing

On the round's Assessors step, search administrators and assessors and include the people who will assess.
Select Assign beside a person and tick the applications they assess. Select Save.

Each person shows how many applications are assigned to them, and any Conflict of Interest they have declared. An application they have a conflict with cannot be assigned to them. One publish can create a limited number of assessments; add more afterwards with Change Assignments.

To share applications out in one go, use Assign by rule or Bulk Assign instead (see below).

Sharing is beside Assign on each person's row of the round's Assessors step, and on each assessor's row under Assessment Sharing in Change Assignments step 1. It lets an assessor read assessments of this round and of earlier rounds, for example a first-stage panel's assessments in a later stage. Include the person in the round first.

Select Sharing beside an assessor.
Tick the assessments they can see. Filter by round, or search by application or assessor. The ones already shared with them are ticked: untick one to stop sharing it. Their own assessments cannot be ticked.
Select Add. Exactly the ticked assessments are shared with them, and their row's Shared Assessments count changes to match.

In a draft round nothing is shared until you publish the round. In a published round, changes to sharing take effect immediately: the assessor sees an added assessment under Shared Assessments at once and loses a removed one at once, without Notify Assessors. Sharing sends no email.

Shares made here include scores. In a blind-review round the popup reminds you of this: to keep scores and assessor names from other assessors until the round closes, use Share Assessments with scoring and assessor information scrubbed instead (see Assessment sharing).

Assign by rule

Assign by rule is on the round's Assessors step and on Change Assignments step 1, Update assignments. It assigns many applications at once from a pool of the round's assessors.

Select Assign by rule and give the rule a name.
Choose a mode. The number you're asked for follows the mode:
- Random: N Assessors per Application gives each application that many assessors.
- Random: N Applications per Assessor gives each assessor in the pool that many applications.
- Round robin with a cap per Assessor gives each application one assessor, taking turns, and never gives an assessor more than the cap.
Choose which applications the rule reaches: every application in the round, those of chosen funding categories, or those carrying a chosen application tag. A scoped rule shows a pool for each value you choose, so Arts can go to one group of assessors and Health to another.
Tick the assessors in each pool.
Select Preview. The preview lists every proposed assignment, each assessor's load before and after, the applications the rule could not fill, how many existing assignments it skipped, and how many assessors it left out of each application for a conflict of interest or because they belong to the applying organisation.
Select Apply.

Nothing is assigned until you select Apply. If you close the drawer or change the rule, the preview is discarded. If the pool is too small for the number you asked for, the preview is refused and offers Assign as many as possible, which assigns what the pool can and lists the rest as not filled.

Random draws are balanced: no assessor gets more than one assignment above another unless a cap, a conflict or an existing assignment forces it. In a draft round the rule's assignments are created when you publish. In a published round they are created at once, and assessors are told only when you select Notify Assessors.

Assign by answer

The fourth mode, By answer, assigns on what applicants said rather than at random. Use it to send every application from one region to the assessors who know it, or every application that names a specialisation to the assessors who hold it.

Select Assign by rule, give the rule a name and choose By answer.
Under Question, choose a question of the round's application form, or a field tag that names one. Only questions with a plain answer are offered: choices, text, numbers and dates.
Choose a Condition. The conditions follow the question:
- is and is not compare the whole answer, ignoring capitals and spaces at either end.
- contains finds a word or phrase in a text answer, or a ticked option of a multiple choice.
- is any of matches any of several answers: tick the options of a choice question, or type one answer per line.
- is more than compares a number answer.
Enter or choose the Answer.
Tick the assessors to assign. Each one you tick is given every matching application.
Select Preview, check the proposed assignments, then select Apply.

An application that left the question blank never matches, not even is not. Assessors with a conflict of interest, or who belong to the applying organisation, are left out and counted in the preview, as for any rule. A rule that names a field tag keeps reading the question the tag was on when you applied it.

Bulk Assign

Bulk Assign is beside Assign by rule on the round's Assessors step and on Change Assignments step 1. It gives several assessors several applications in one go, without a rule.

Select Bulk Assign.
Tick the assessors. Only people included in the round are listed.
Tick the applications. Search narrows the list, and Tick every Application shown ticks the ones the search shows. The count below says how many assignments you are asking for: each ticked assessor gets each ticked application.
Select Assign.

The result shows how many assignments were created, how many already existed, and each one left out with its reason: a Conflict of Interest, a Member of the applying entity, or an application Not eligible for this round. Select Done to close it. A bulk assignment is the same as one made with Assign: in a draft round it is created when you publish, and in a published round it is created at once and the assessor is told when you select Notify Assessors.

Re-apply a saved rule

A rule is saved when you apply it. The published round's View lists its assignment rules, with the mode and when each was last applied. A By answer rule shows its question, condition and answer, for example By answer: Region is North. Select Re-apply beside a rule to assign only the applications that joined the round since. Re-apply shows the preview first and assigns nothing until you select Apply; then notify the assessors from Change Assignments. A panel's rule is listed with a Panel badge and is applied from its panel: open the panel from the round's Panels tab and select Apply rule. Re-apply keeps the rule as it was saved: if its pool is now too small and the rule was saved without Assign as many as possible, make a new rule with Assign by rule instead.

Acceptance and reassignment

When a round has Require assignment acceptance turned on (the Workflow step), each new assignment is Awaiting acceptance until the assessor answers. The date to accept by is set when the assessor is notified, Accept within (days) after it. The assessor accepts, or declines with a reason: Unavailable, Outside my expertise, Conflict of interest or Other. Assessors get a reminder two days before the date, and an unanswered assignment lapses after it.

A declined or lapsed assignment is removed. With Reassign automatically on, Backed gives the application to the next eligible member of the rule's pool (or the round's assessors), leaving out anyone with a conflict, and notifies them. When no one is left, or reassignment is off, you get a Task, Assignment needs reassignment, that opens the round. A Conflict of interest decline is recorded as a conflict declaration in a round that asks for them, for you to review; in any other round the assignment is removed and that assessor isn't proposed for the application again.

The round's View shows each assessor's counts under Assignment acceptance.

Change assignments after publishing

Open the published round and select Change Assignments.
On Update assignments:
- Add Assessors adds people to the round.
- Assign by rule assigns by rule (see above).
- Bulk Assign gives several assessors several applications (see above).
- Add Application adds more submitted applications.
- Update beside a person changes their applications. Unticking one removes that assessment at once, whatever its status, except that a panel member's submitted assessment is kept.
- Sharing under Assessment Sharing changes which assessments an assessor can read (see Share assessments with an assessor). Each change applies as soon as you make it.
On Review, check the assessors and applications added, and the assignments added, removed and skipped. Each skipped assignment says why: the assessor has a conflict of interest that has not been revoked, or the assessment was submitted by a panel member and is kept.
On Notify Assessors, select Notify Assessors. Each assessor with new assignments gets one email and a Dashboard notification about those assignments only.

Assessors are not told about new assignments until you notify them.