Publishing a round's results
Performed by: Call manager
After its cut-off, a round moves through a lifecycle of its own: its proposals are evaluated, decided, the results announced and the round closed. On calls whose applicants learn the decision together for the whole round, publishing the round's results is what announces the held allocation decisions.
Round lifecycle after the cut-off
Before its cut-off a round is Scheduled or Open, derived from its dates. Once the cut-off has passed, the round enters a stored lifecycle that the call manager drives from the round's ⋮ menu in the Rounds section of the call's edit page:
| Stage | Entered | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Evaluating | automatically after the cut-off (an hourly job), when the round is closed early, or on the first lifecycle action | The round's proposals are being evaluated |
| Deciding | Start deciding | The evaluated batch has gone to the decision body. Optional — results can be published straight from Evaluating |
| Results published | Publish results | Every decision of the round has been announced. On a call whose results are adopted before publication, only after the round has been through Deciding and its adoption is recorded |
| Closed | Complete round | Nothing more happens in the round |
The rounds list shows the stage next to the round's status, and, for call managers, a held count of decisions recorded but not yet announced. Expand a row to see when each stage started, who published the results, the rule for undecided proposals and the adoption record.
Besides the lifecycle actions, the menu offers Close round (before the cut-off), Allocate in submission order, Complete a step for the round, Undecided proposals rule and Record adoption (Edit adoption record once recorded), as far as they apply to the round.
Each step is logged as an event of the call. The lifecycle actions require the same permission as closing a round, and are available only while the call is active.
Publishing a round's results
Applicants learn the decision under Edit → General configuration → Decisions and rounds decides when an applicant hears the outcome:
- As each decision is made — completing or rejecting the Allocation decision step announces the outcome at once, as before.
- Together for the whole round — the decision is recorded but held. The proposal stays In review for the applicant, the notification is not sent, and nothing is provisioned. The call team sees the tentative outcome (Awarded (tentative), Not awarded (tentative), Decision lapsed (tentative)) in the proposals list. When the round is ready, a call manager publishes its results and every applicant of the round is told at the same time.
Publish results announces every held decision of the round and carries it out as if it had just been made: an approved proposal continues to the award response step, or is accepted and provisioned; a declined one is rejected. Each applicant receives the same notification an immediate decision would have sent.
Publishing is refused while some proposals of the round are still being evaluated without a decision. The dialog says how many; to publish anyway, use Publish anyway and give a Reason for publishing early. The reason is kept on the round, and the undecided proposals carry on — their decisions are announced as they are made.
If a held decision cannot be carried out (for example, its allocation cannot be provisioned), it stays held and the dialog lists it; the rest are published. Publish results remains available on the round while anything is still held, and publishing again retries it.
On a call that announces each decision as it is made, Publish results holds nothing back: it only records the round's stage.
Until results are published (or, on a call that requires adoption, until the adoption is recorded), a call manager can take a held decision back with Reopen decision on the proposal — see Held decisions.
Who sees a held decision
Only staff, support, and users who can update the call (its call managers and the managing organisation's call organisers) see that a decision is held and what it is. Applicants, reviewers, panel members and offering managers see the allocation decision as still in progress until the results are published. An applicant who also manages the call is treated as an applicant for their own proposal.
Completing a round
Complete round closes a round whose results have been published. What happens to proposals that still have no decision follows Undecided proposals when a round is completed — set on the call and overridable per round with Undecided proposals rule:
- Block completion until every proposal is decided — completing is refused and the dialog says how many proposals have no decision yet.
- Reject them automatically — each undecided proposal is rejected at the workflow step it stands in, with the reason Not decided when the round was completed., and its applicant is notified at once. The round is then closed.
Completing is also refused while a decision of the round is still held because its release failed at publication; publish the results again first.
Recording adoption
Where the results must be adopted by another body (a board, for example), record it with Record adoption on the round: the adoption date, a note and optionally the adopting document. It can be recorded at any time after the cut-off.
When Results are adopted before publication is set under Edit → General configuration → Decisions and rounds, adoption becomes a required step: it is recorded while the round is Deciding, Publish results stays disabled until it is, and once it is recorded a held decision can no longer be reopened. While the round still holds its decisions, the adoption note, the document and the reason for publishing early are shown only to those who may see held decisions.