Our Mission

 

The Center for Scientific Review (CSR) is the portal for NIH grant applications and their review for scientific merit. We organize the peer review groups or study sections that evaluate the majority (70%) of the research grant applications sent to NIH. We also receive all grant applications for NIH, as well as for some other components of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

 

Since 1946 our mission,  has remained clear and timely: to see that NIH grant applications receive fair, independent, expert, and timely reviews -- free from inappropriate influences -- so NIH can fund the most promising research.

 

 

The Power of Peer Review

 

CSR receives about 80,000 applications a year and recruits over 17,000 external experts to review them in its study sections, which meet three times during the year. Additional scientists serve on other NIH advisory councils, which provide a second level of peer review and make funding recommendations based on priorities set by Congress, DHHS, and the public.

 

For over 60 years, this peer review system has enabled NIH to fund cutting-edge research that has allowed millions to leave their doctor’s office with new drugs and cures for diseases that afflicted their parents or grandparents.

 

• 70% of major drugs were developed or made possible by NIH-funded research
• 80% of the Nobel Prizes in Physiology/Medicine were awarded to or shared by NIH scientists since 1964
• 1.35 million deaths are prevented each year  due to NIH research advances  in treating or preventing cardiovascular disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes.

 

Challenges and Changes

 

To keep medical advances coming, we have worked to align our efforts with the growth and expanding complexities of scientific research as well as increases in new research applications. To become more efficient and effective in identifying the best research, CSR continues multiple efforts to: 

• Improve study section alignment 
• Assign applications more accurately
• Ensure new investigators are fairly reviewed 
• Shorten the review cycle 
• Advance additional review platforms
• Recruit the best reviewers
• Increase transparency, accountability and uniformity of NIH peer review

   

Productive Partnerships

 

The power that drives NIH is found in the collective efforts of people who submit, review, and administer NIH grant applications. Making the NIH peer review system more effective requires the involvement of all stakeholders, and we have reached out to inform and involve as many of them as possible.  If you have comments you would like to share with CSR, please send an email to CSRDirector@csr.nih.gov.

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