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Conflict of Interest

The GCBC has put in place a number of measures in order to effectively manage conflict of interest:

The GCBC Management Lead, DAI Global, is managing the grant competition, supporting evaluation of project proposals, and working with funding recipients on project delivery and reporting.  As a commercial partner DAI Global is not:

  • eligible to receive research grant funding provided through the GCBC or to act as a consortium member of any other commercial partner or grant recipient; and
  • eligible to be appointed as the Independent Evaluator or associated sub-contractor.

The GCBC Strategic Science Lead, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, is delivering science advice to inform the strategic approach of the GCBC and the thematic focus of grant calls. RBG Kew is not:

  • the final decision maker on the research themes, geographies or research questions which will be used in the grant competition calls. Defra, in its absolute and sole discretion, will have final approval in this regard; or
  • involved in the assessment or evaluation of any research grant proposals, unless invited by Defra to do so. In cases where they may do so, Kew personnel will recuse themselves from any discussion of applications that may have been submitted from other parts of the Kew.

The GCBC SSL team in RBG Kew Partnerships Directorate who are responsible for the delivery of the Research Strategy are not eligible to receive research grant funding provided through the GCBC or to act as a consortium member of any other grant recipient.

The delivery of the GCBC programme (inclusive of the Research Strategy) will require multi-disciplinary input from a range of experts from within RBG Kew Science Directorate and external partner organisations. These experts will be eligible to bid for research grant funding providing ethical walls have been established and maintained and they have not been privy to overarching policy and strategic considerations that could be deemed to give them unfair advantage. The GCBC SSL team at RBG Kew will adopt an open and transparent approach in calling for input to the Research Strategy and in sharing research products widely with the research community.