Be informed about how second-level review works.

Institute advisory Councils usually conduct second-level review.

Second-level review looks at applications with:

• Potential barriers to funding, e.g., bars to award.
• Special circumstances, e.g., foreign applications.

Advisory Councils make funding recommendations to institutes; institutes decide which applications to fund.

If you have a bar to award, our Council will not recommend funding your application until it is resolved.

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.

Know why second-level review is faster for some applications and how that can affect the timing of your award.

Know the outcomes of second-level review.

Read about funding in Part 7. Funding.

Just the Facts

Part 5

• Know What a Summary Statement Means in Initial Peer Review and Your Next Steps
• How Reviewers Score Applications
• Council's Second-Level Review

Advisory Council portal—meeting dates, concepts, other links

• Council SOPs
• Advisory Council questions and answers
• Bars to Grant Awards SOP

Bar to award codes:

• Research Animals Involvement Codes
• Human Subjects Involvement Codes
• Human Subjects Inclusion Codes

Definitions

• advisory Council
• animals in research code
• bar to award
• human subjects code
• second-level review
• summary statement

If your application was discussed, prepare your just-in-time information now if you haven't done so already.

For applications that rank in the top 20 percent, we request some 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.

Just the Facts

Prepare Your Just-in-Time Information in Part 3

Definition: just-in-time

Our Advice

Prepare Your Just-in-Time Information in Part 3