Journal
Following a file through a referral agency
Grant packs that leave for a scientific reader do not enter a cloud. They enter a pigeonhole. In one secretariat we watched, the envelope was wrapped with care on a Monday, sat in an out-tray until Wednesday because the courier came twice a week, and was opened at the receiving end on Friday afternoon by a person who did not assess, only sorted. The reader saw it the following Thursday. The covering minute asked for a reply “as soon as practicable.”
When we are allowed into the second office, we sit there as we sit in the first: quietly, with a chair that does not block their own counter. When we are not allowed, we still record the silence. An unanswered referral is a fact. It belongs beside the arrow, not in a footnote.
If you commission a Referral Loop Study, expect us to care about the courier days and the internal mail. They are as much a part of the applicant’s wait as the specialist’s thinking.