The Office of Review provides policy direction and coordination for the planning and execution of initial scientific and technical reviews conducted within the NINR. The reviews conducted by the office are considered to be first level reviews, and involve panels of experts established according to scientific disciplines or current research areas for the purpose of evaluating the scientific and technical merit of grant applications. The Chief of the Office of Review is Dr. Yujing Liu.

A. Grants Reviewed by NINR Office of Review:

There is one charted review committee in NINR known as the NINR IRG (Initial Review Group). This committee is primarily responsible for the scientific review of individual training and career development grant applications. The standing member list of the NINR IRG Member Roster can be found online at http://era.nih.gov/roster/proster.cfm?CID=100895.

Applications not reviewed by the NINR IRG are reviewed by the Special Emphasis Panel (SEP), which is responsible for the scientific review of applications received by the Institute in response to a Request For Applications (RFA). The Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Institutional Research Training Grants (T32) are also reviewed by this office using the SEP mechanism in response to a Program Announcement. In summary, the Office of Review is responsible for reviewing F, K, T32, P01, P20, and P30 grants submitted to NINR and for R01, R21, and R03 submitted in response to a RFA. The Office of Review also organizes contract review.
 

B. Grants Reviewed by NIH Center for Scientific Review for NINR:

Review of most research grant applications such as R01, R21, R03, R41, R42, R43, and R44 in response to Parent Announcements as opposed to training or career development applications is performed by study sections located in the NIH Center for Scientific Review (http://cms.csr.nih.gov/AboutCSR/).

The two-level review system utilized by NIH involving the scientific review group and the advisory council is briefly described in the diagram below.

Two Level System for Application Review. 1st Level: Scientific Review Group: Independent outside reviewers. Evaluate scientific merit & significance. Recommend length and level of funding.2nd Level:National Advisory CouncilAssesses Quality of SRG ReviewMakes Recommendation toInstitute Staff on FundingEvaluates Program Priorities and Relevance.Advises on Policy.

C. Useful Links for Grant Applicants and Reviewers:

Enhancing Peer Review: NIH has started implementing new peer review policies since the beginning of 2009 including the deletion of A2 version resubmission, establishment of New Investigator and Early Stage Investigators as the cluster for reviewing, replacement of old 1.0-5.0 score scale with 1-9 score scale for grant scoring, using new critique template and including criterion scores, and restructured grant forms and new page limit for most grant submission. Please see the detailed and constantly updated NIH link for more information (http://enhancing-peer-review.nih.gov/index.html).

Note: Some files listed here are PDFs, requiring Acrobat Reader to view. Acrobat Reader can be downloaded here.


Final Score and Its Interpretation: Please see the Scoring System and Procedure (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/peer/guidelines_general/scoring_system_and_procedure.pdf)

Revised Page Limit Table: Effective for due dates on or after January 25, 2010 (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/forms_page_limits.htm)

Restructured Grant Submission: Details of Application Changes for Research Grants and Cooperative Agreements (January 2010): http://enhancing-peer-review.nih.gov/docs/application_changes.pdf

Details of Application Changes for Career Development (December 2009): http://enhancing-peer-review.nih.gov/docs/Details_of_Career_Development_Application_Changes.pdf

Details of Application Changes for Fellowships (March 2010): http://enhancing-peer-review.nih.gov/docs/Details_of_Application_Changes_for_Fellowships.pdf

SF424 Application Guide for R, T, and K Grant Mechanisms: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/424/SF424_RR_Guide_General_Adobe_VerB.pdf

SF424 Application Guide for Individual Fellowship (F) Mechanisms: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/424/SF424_RR_Guide_Fellowship_VerB.pdf

Additional Format Pages and Data Tables: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/424/index.htm

Grant Submission Due Dates : http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/submissionschedule.htm

Search For NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices:
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/index.html

Research Involving Human Subjects: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/hs/index.htm

Animals in Research : http://grants.nih.gov/grants/olaw/olaw.htm

Guidelines and Fillable Templates for Reviewers: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/peer/reviewer_guidelines.htm#f_awards

Peer Review Policies & Practices Including Peer Review News, Peer Review Practice, Continuous Submission Benefits, Roster Search, and Peer Review Policy Documents: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/peer/peer.htm#continuous

D. Review Policy Q&A:

Please click on the Q&A document linked below for details.
Review Policy Q&A (PDF, 82KB)