More and more research grants worldwide are distributed based on decisions of review committees. But how do these peer review committees come to a decision and what affects decision-making processes when research programs are evaluated? Surprisingly little research has so far been devoted to this question. Most of the literature on peer review concentrates on the issue of whether editorial peer review lives up to expectations. Peer review of research applications has received much less attention and not much is known about expert panel evaluations.
This paper introduces the use of methodological triangulation within the ongoing project „Peer Review at the German Research Foundation. Researching into Expert Panels: the example of the Collaborative Research Centers” which aims to contribute to the research on committee peer review and to provide information about strengths and weaknesses of the CRC-peer review process.