What
Happens to Your Grant Application
A Primer for New
Applicants
The Center
for Scientific Review (CSR) receives all NIH and many other
Public Health Service grant applications. Most
investigator-initiated applications for NIH funds are referred
to CSR review groups. The NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs)
coordinate the review of many IC-specific applications and use
the same peer review process described below.
Your
application is assigned to a review group and an NIH Institute
or Center
One or
more CSR Referral Officers examines your application and
determines the most appropriate Integrated Review Group (IRG)
to assess it for scientific merit. Your application is then
assigned to one of the IRG’s study sections. A study section
typically includes 20 or more scientists from the community of
productive researches. Your application also will be assigned
to the NIH IC best suited to fund your application should it
have sufficient merit. (More than one IC may be assigned if
appropriate.)
Referral
Officers follow established guidelines that define the review
boundaries of each study section. These boundaries frequently
overlap, and more than one study section may have the
expertise to review your application. You may request in a
cover letter with your application that it be assigned to a
particular study section or IC. The CSR referral office
seriously considers such requests.
The
combined expertise of the scientists in a study section is
intended to span the breadth and diversity of the science it
covers. CSR may recruit temporary reviewers or secure mail
reviews from outside consultants. Special Emphasis Panels also
may be formed on an ad-hoc basis to review applications when
special expertise is required or when special circumstances
arise.
An
assignment notice is sent to you
Within 10 days of
determining your assignments, CSR will send notices to you and
your sponsored research office. You may question either your
study section or IC assignment by contacting the Scientific
Review Administrator (SRA) noted in your letter or the CSR
referral office (301-435-0715). It usually takes 6 weeks to
refer the 16,000 applications submitted each round. If you do
not receive your notice within this period, you should contact
the referral office.
Reviewers are identified
Your SRA will
analyze the content of your application, check for
completeness, and decide which study section members can best
review it or act as discussants. Unless a conflict of interest
exists, all study section members receive copies of your
application approximately 6 weeks before their meeting.
Typically, two or three members are asked to provide written
reviews of each application, and one or two additional members
serve as discussants.
Because of
the multi-month period between submission and review,
applicants often wish to submit additional materials. Before
you do, you should contact your SRA to ascertain the
acceptable content, format, and deadline.
Before the
study section meets, members list all R01 applications
believed to be in the lower half for scientific merit. If all
members agree, these applications are “streamlined.” The will
not be discussed at the meeting, but the assigned reviewers
will still provide written critiques. “Streamlining” is not
equivalent to disapproval.
The review
meeting is convened
Study section members convene for
about 2 days. One member serves as chair and conducts the
meeting with the SRA. Relevant NIH extramural staff are
encouraged to attend, but they may not participate. Assigned
reviewers and discussants present their evaluations and
outside opinions are read. After a general discussion, members
mark their priority scores privately on scoring sheets, which
are later tabulated by CSR.
The
results are sent to you
Within a few days after the
meeting, a computer-generated letter with your priority score
and percentile ranking is automatically mailed to you. In
about 6 weeks, your summary statement will be delivered to the
assigned IC, which will send you a copy. It will include (1)
the written critiques produced by the assigned reviewers, (2)
the SRA’s summary of the study section’s discussion, (3) study
section recommendations, and (4) administrative notes of
special consideration.
The
assigned NIH Institute or Center Takes Charge
After the
review, an IC program officer will be your main point of
contact. He or she may help interpret your review results or
answer questions about the further consideration of your
application. In a second level of peer review, IC Advisory
Councils may consider the study section’s recommendations and
determine the relevance of your proposed research to IC
priorities and public health needs.
Get More Information on Peer Review at CSR
CSR Policy,
Procedure & Review Guidelines Web Page
CSR
Best Practices Web Page
Get General Grant Information
The NIH
Office of Extramural Research Grants (OER) Web page
provides a wealth of information on funding opportunities,
grant application forms, instructions, and policies. It also
operates the NIH GrantsInfo service, which can be contacted
via e-mail (grantsinfo@nih.gov) or phone (301 435-0714). In
addition, the OER Web site provides information on the peer review
policies and procedures pertaining to all NIH components
that conduct peer reviews.
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