The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced proposed changes to its grant peer review framework. With the changes, NIH hopes the new criteria will allow reviewers to focus on the scientific merit of individual applications by evaluating the impact, rigor, and feasibility of the proposed research and by determining whether the necessary expertise and resources are available to carry out the project.
Under the proposed policy, the current five review criteria will be reduced to three factors; Factor 1: Importance of the Research, Factor 2; Rigor and Feasibility, and Factor 3; Expertise and Resources. Detailed descriptions of the three factors are available at https://grants.nih.gov/policy/peer/Proposed-Framework/reviewer-guidance.htm.
NIH is also proposing other changes to the peer review framework in an effort to reduce the time required for reviewers. These changes include moving select parts of the Additional Review Criteria outside of the initial peer review process.
As these changes are being considered, NIH is seeking input from individual members of the NIH community. Details about the proposed review criteria and an opportunity to provide comments are available on the Office of Extramural Research’s blog Open Mike. NIH will be accepting comments until March 23, 2023.
About the Author:
Kevin M. Wilson serves as Director of Public Policy and Media Relations for The American Society for Cell Biology. He's worked as the Legislative Director for U.S. Congressman Robert Weygand (D-RI) and as a Legislative Assistant for U.S. Senator Claiborne Pell (D-RI). He has a BA in Politics and American Government from the Catholic University of America. Email: kwilson@ascb.org