Strategy for NIH Funding
Timing for Assignment and Review · Ensure You Get the Right Assignments
Strategy for Assignment and Review
This strategy page gives you key actions to take before and after peer review. Within 10 days after applying, you should log in to your Commons account to see your assignments and take action if you are not satisfied with them.
If you wish to send late materials to your scientific review officer, know the rules and what to do.
Read about peer review so you understand how your application is assessed and what your score and summary statement mean.
After review, read your summary statement and get ready to talk to your program officer.
Know Your Actions for Assignment and Review
Make sure you have the right study section and institute assignments.
| Action Summary |
Learn More |
|
Check your institute assignment.
Within 10 days after applying, log in to your eRA Commons account to see your institute assignment.
If you chose the wrong institute or didn't get the right assignment, check in with your program officer.
Find your program officer's name in the Commons.
|
Just the Facts
Ensure You Get the Right Assignments in Part 5
Definitions
Our Advice
Ensure You Get the Right Assignments in Part 5
|
|
Check your study section assignment and the reviewers.
Within 10 days after applying, also log into the Commons to check your study section assignments.
Check that your application is assigned to a study section with the appropriate expertise.
Verify even if you requested assignment since you may have gotten a different one.
If you don't see your study section assignment within two weeks, call the NIH Referral Office at 301-435-0715.
About 30 days before the review meeting, check the updated roster in the Commons to make sure it still has the expertise needed to review your application.
If not, contact your scientific review officer (SRO) to discuss.
Also tell your SRO if you see a reviewer who you feel cannot give your application an impartial review.
|
Just the Facts
Ensure You Get the Right Assignments in Part 5
Definitions
Our Advice
Ensure You Get the Right Assignments in Part 5
|
|
Request a change if you aren't happy with your assignment.
Discuss an alternative study section with the chief of the integrated review group for your assigned study section.
To discuss the institute assignment, contact your program officer.
To request a change for either assignment, follow the process described in the document linked under "Our Advice."
|
Just the Facts
Ensure You Get the Right Assignments in Part 5
Definition: integrated review group (IRG)
Our Advice
Ensure You Get the Right Assignments in Part 5
|
Know the rules for sending additional information.
| Action Summary |
Learn More |
|
Follow NIH's rules to send late materials before the review.
Do not circumvent page limits.
For investigator-initiated applications, NIH limits late materials to certain items, for example, to:
- Add an important collaborator.
- Gain access to a needed piece of equipment.
- Have an article accepted for publication.
RFAs have their own rules. Contact your SRO for details.
Your authorized organizational representative must sign off on a submission of late information.
SROs do not have to accept material sent after the submission deadline. Contact your SRO to ask if the information you would like to send is appropriate.
Submit materials 30 days before the review meeting.
|
Just the Facts
Assess Your Application After You Submit in Part 4—includes If You Need to Send Late Materials After Submitting
NIH's Frequently Asked Questions on post-submission materials policy
Definitions
|
Prepare for peer review.
| Action Summary |
Learn More |
|
Understand peer review.
Understand how initial peer review works.
Know the importance of having the right people review your application and how you can help make that happen.
Know how to tailor your application to your reviewer's expectations.
Understand how reviewers score applications.
|
Just the Facts
Part 5
Review Criteria and other Peer Review SOPs
Peer Review questions and answers
From NIH
Our Advice
Know Your Audience in Part 3
Part 5
|
Foreign applications have one more step.
| Action Summary |
Learn More |
|
Foreign applications have an extra review step.
Foreign applicants must have either the expertise or resources not available here.
Reviewers assess whether comparable work is being done in the U.S. If it is, the grant will not likely be funded.
Reviewers also consider the relevance of the proposed research to NIAID's mission and check whether there is a need for the research.
Foreign investigators researching select agents must follow appropriate procedures.
|
Just the Facts
Part 1
Foreign Applications Have an Extra Review Step in Initial Peer Review and Your Next Steps in Part 5
If using select agents, read the Select Agent Awards SOP.
More resources on the NIAID International Awards portal
Definition: select agent
|
Know your actions after the review.
| Action Summary |
Learn More |
|
Know what it means and next steps if your application is not discussed.
Three types of applications are not discussed:
- Streamlined review
- Not recommended for further consideration
- Deferred
These applications do not receive a full review, overall impact score, or summary statement.
Streamlined applications may be high quality and ultimately fundable.
Get advice from your program officer to determine what to do next.
Read the information and advice in the documents linked at right.
|
Just the Facts
Initial Peer Review and Your Next Steps in Part 5
Definitions
Our Advice
What to Do if You Get Bad News in Part 6
|
|
Know when to expect your summary statement.
Investigators who are not new get a summary statement within 30 days after the review meeting.
New R01 investigators are on a different schedule.
- Get summary statements no later than July 10, November 10, or March 10 (depending on the review cycle).
- Can resubmit later: August 10, December 10, or April 10, giving them one month to revise and resubmit for the next receipt date.
Note that as of 2010, less than 13 percent of new investigators who received summary statements in that timeframe were able to resubmit for the next receipt date.
|
Just the Facts
Initial Peer Review and Your Next Steps in Part 5
Definition
Our Advice
Initial Peer Review and Your Next Steps in Part 5
|
|
Take action after you get your summary statement, and know its limitations.
In the summary statement, find the overall impact scores and criterion scores from your assigned reviewers.
Read a bulleted synopsis and the reviewers' critiques.
Check our paylines; then contact your program officer after you receive your summary statement to do the following.
- Ask about the probability of imminent funding.
- If your application is on hold for funding, read Revise, Don't Wait for Later Funding.
- If funding is not imminent, ask your program officer if he or she (or a representative) attended the review meeting and can give you additional insight into the discussion.
- Discuss what you need to do in advance of our just-in-time request.
Read a bulleted synopsis and the reviewers' critiques.
Contact your program officer quickly if your summary statement has a human subjects or animal research code indicating study section concerns that create a bar to award.
- If your summary statement has a code that creates a bar to award, we can't give you an award until you resolve the issue.
- Read more in the links at right.
Know the limitations of summary statements in giving you feedback for revising your application.
|
Just the Facts
Prepare Your Just-in-Time Information in Part 3
Part 5
Part 7. Funding
Bars to Grant Awards SOP
Bar to award codes:
Definitions
Our Advice
Initial Peer Review and Your Next Steps in Part 5
Assess Peer Review Results in What to Do if You Get Bad News in Part 6
Contact Staff for Help in Start Here to Use the Strategy for NIH Funding
|
|
If your application was discussed, prepare your just-in-time information if you haven't already.
For applications in the top 20 percent, we request information just-in-time.
This means you send information to us when we request it, after initial peer review.
We will not make an award before we receive your just-in-time information, but our request is not a guarantee of a grant.
Know why you should prepare your just-in-time information early and why putting it off can be a big mistake.
|
Just the Facts
Prepare Your Just-in-Time Information in Part 3
Our Advice
Prepare Your Just-in-Time Information in Part 3
|
Strategy for NIH Funding
Timing for Assignment and Review · Ensure You Get the Right Assignments
See the other sections of
Part 5. Assignment and Review
Table of Contents for the Strategy
We welcome your comments, questions, or suggestions. Email deaweb@niaid.nih.gov.