The Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) represents one of the biggest research grants provided by the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) for all researchers in Malaysia. A total of 115 assessors who are professors in specific research areas have been appointed by by the Ministry to validate the final proposals submitted by institutions of higher learning. The final evaluation was held for four days in Port Dickson. The 2013 FRGS assessment had gone through very stringent evaluation process. At the institution level, each submission must undergo at least two levels of content evaluations. With respect technical processes, the Research Management Centres (RMC) of each institution will ensure researchers submit their proposals using the correct submission forms. Each respective department or responsibility centre is also expected to do a pre-submission workshop to explain the "do's" and "dont's" of proposal submissions. Once ready, the universities would invite MOHE-appointed assessors to validate the final approved proposals. If the assessors are not satisfied with the evaluation process, the whole stack of proposals from that university would be rejected. As such, only "Highly Recommended" approved proposals are submitted to MOHE for the final assessments. The evaluation process was very thorough. FRGS proposals are expected to highlight (i) "novelty" of the proposed project; (ii) Quality and intensity of collaborations; (iii) Technology transfer or commercialization potential; (iv) Quality of sectoral/national impacts; (v) Quality of organisational outcomes; (vi) Achievement viability of project objectives; (vii) Overall assessment of benefits.
