Cross-posted on Open Mike. We are pleased to announce the details of changes to the peer review process and application forms for fellowship applications, to be implemented for applications submitted for due dates on or after January 25th, 2025. (See NOT-OD-24-107.) As we have discussed on this blog before (see here, here, here, and here), these changes are meant to facilitate the identification of the most promising candidates and the individualized training opportunities that will assist these researchers along their paths to careers in biomedical research. The changes to peer review and the fellowship application result from years of analysis and discussion. In response to continued concerns voiced by the extramural community that the current fellowship review process potentially disadvantages some highly qualified candidates, the NIH Center for Scientific Review (CSR) formed a CSR Advisory Council working group in Fall 2021, charged with evaluating the peer review process for NIH
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Cross-posted on Open Mike. Last October, we announced that NIH was implementing a simplified review framework for most research project grants (RPGs). As a reminder, in the simplified review framework NIH aims to better facilitate the mission of scientific peer review – identification of the strongest, highest-impact research. The changes are intended to: Enable peer reviewers to better focus on answering the key questions necessary to assess the scientific and technical merit of proposed research projects: Can and should the proposed research project be conducted? Mitigate the effect of reputational bias by refocusing the evaluation of investigator/environment to within the context of the proposed research. Reduce reviewer burden by shifting policy compliance activities to NIH staff. Today, NIH released a Guide Notice (NOT-OD-24-085) to provide an update on our implementation plans for the simplified review framework. The Notice provides guidance to applicants on navigating new and updated funding opportunities expected
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