NIH Changes Peer Review, Commits $1B for Transformative Research

As annual appropriations for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) flattened – at the same time more and more states and universities are increasing their investments in academic bioscience research capacity – competition for NIH grants has heightened. Reports indicate investigators in the early stages of their careers and transformative research have been the victims of the squeeze.
 
The peer review process employed by NIH to select winners in competitive solicitation cycles, lauded for its impartiality for years, has been indicted by many recently as adding to the problem. During the first weeks of June, NIH announced plans to address some of the criticism, including a commitment of  $1 billion over the next five years for investigator-initiated, high-risk/high-impact transformative research.
 
The institutes also are making significant changes to enhance and improve the NIH peer review system. This marks the end of a year-long effort to determine ways to further enrich the process, which drew on thousands of comments, opinions and criticisms received throughout the year.
 
The Implementation Plan Report consists of four main priorities, with highlights including:

• Engage the Best Reviewers: Increase flexibility of service, formally acknowledge reviewer efforts, further compensate time and effort, and enhance and standardize training;
• Improve Quality and Transparency of Reviews: Shorten and redesign applications to highlight impact and to allow alignment of the application, review and summary statement with five explicit review criteria, and modify the rating system;
• Ensure Balanced and Fair Reviews Across Scientific Fields and Career Stages by:
  
  • Supporting a minimum number of early-stage investigators and investigators new to NIH, and emphasize retrospective accomplishments of experienced investigators;
  • Encouraging and expanding the Transformative Research Pathway;
  • Creating a new investigator-initiated Transformative R01 Award program funded within the NIH Roadmap with an intended commitment of a minimum of $250 million over five years;
  • Continuing the commitment of – and possibly expand the use of – the Pioneer, EUREKA, and New Innovator Awards.  NIH will invest at least $750 million in these three programs over the next five years; and,
  • Reducing the burden of multiple rounds of resubmission for the same application, especially for highly meritorious applications.
• Develop a Permanent Process for Continuous Review of Peer Review

 Collaborative teams of participants worked to tackle challenges of the system and discover solutions. A comprehensive framework was created and implementation will be carried out over the next 18 months. More information about enhancing peer review at NIH and the implementation plan is available at http://enhancing-peer-review.nih.gov.