Review Guidelines

Summary Statements for Program Project Applications - P01s

Excerpted from the NIGMS Guide

The Program Project mechanism is designed to support research in which the funding of several projects as a group offers significant scientific advantages over support of these same projects as individual regular research grants.

The Summary Statement should reflect the level of enthusiasm of the Study Section. and consists of the following sections:

Resume and Summary of Discussion Prepared by the Scientific Review Administrator
DescriptionNow used verbatim from the applicant's abstract
CRITIQUE: OVERALL addressing:

  • Overall scientific strengths and weaknesses
  • Significance of the overall question being asked
  • Scientific and administrative coherence
  • Interactions and collaborations among research components
  • Qualifications of the Principal Investigator
  • Mechanisms proposed to evaluate progress
  • Resources available (including the proposed "cores")
Written by the Study Section Chairperson. Note that the word CRITIQUE must be aligned left and immediately follow the Description section.
Critiques of component research projectsAt the end of the meeting blended reviews emerge, based on the usual 5 criteria, namely significance, approach, innovation, investigator, environment, plus consideration of interdependence, that is interactions with other components. Individual research projects are scored on both scientific quality and relevance to the total project.
Critiques of core projectsCore Projects are reviewed but not scored. Critiques involve the following elements:
  • Quality of services and facilities
  • Value and relevance to the proposed program
  • The extent to which two or more research projects will benefit


Additional Points To Consider

  • All narrative must be consistent with the application score.

  • NIGMS wants especially to know about the importance of the problem, its timeliness, whether the participants can do the work, and what value derives from supporting this joint effort. In short, the signal question is:

    Is this the right time to do this project with this group?

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