Draft funding and sponsorship policy
Consultation on the policy governing what funding the Institute accepts, from whom, and on what published terms. The draft prohibits any funding arrangement that confers rights of review over an assessment before publication, and requires that every funding…
§1Consultation and window
§1.1Window
- Opened
- 9 January 2023
- Closed
- 10 March 2023
- Duration
- 60 days
- Status
- Closed — the disposition is published
- Document under consultation
- Governance document
- Submissions received
- 10
§1.2Consultation questions
The secretariat put the following questions. A submission was not required to address them and several did not; the questions record what the Institute was uncertain about rather than restricting what a respondent could raise.
- Is the prohibition on pre-publication review drawn widely enough to capture arrangements that confer such rights indirectly?
- Should the Institute accept funding from a supplier it also assesses, subject to disclosure, or should such funding be refused outright?
- Is per-page disclosure proportionate, or does it dilute the signal by repeating it where it is not relevant?
§1.3How a submission is handled
- Every submission is signed. The Institute publishes no anonymous submission.
- Every submission carries a declared interest. A declaration of no interest is itself a declaration and is recorded as one. A declaration is not a disqualification and the Institute has never given a submission less weight on that ground.
- A submission from an employee of a marketing-authorisation holder is identified as an industry submission on its face, following a unanimous consultation on the conflicts policy.
- Every submission receives a secretariat response and a disposition. Submissions that are not accepted remain published in full; the Institute does not remove a submission because it disagrees with it.
- There is no voting, no reputation score, no reply thread and no editing after receipt.
§1.4Outcome
The policy was ratified with amendments. The prohibition on pre-publication review was widened to cover indirect arrangements, and disclosure remains per-page after respondents divided on the question and the assessment committee preferred over-disclosure to a judgement call about relevance.
The disposition table, listing each submission with its disposition and the resulting amendment, is at §3.