It's worth knowing in advance whether your application will have its initial peer review at NIH’s Center for Scientific Review (CSR) or at one of NIH’s institutes or centers.
The reason? If you know your application will go to a CSR study section, you can request assignment to the most appropriate one. Knowing the most likely reviewers also lets you write your application with that audience in mind. Learn more at Use the PHS Assignment Request Form.
Listed Contacts
To determine your application’s likely locus of review, check your chosen notice of funding opportunity (NOFO). Check "Section V. Application Review Information" and then scroll down to the subsection "2. Review and Selection Process." The organization shown for the listed peer review contact will usually be the one to handle the review.
A notice of special interest (NOSI) may also list application review information, but most NOSIs defer to the review information listed in the NOFO through which you choose to apply.
Application Type
Alternatively, there are general rules of thumb for where an NIH application will be reviewed based on its type:
CSR review—For applications sent in response to program announcements (PA), including Parent Announcements and most NOSIs, the most appropriate study section in CSR will conduct the initial peer review. Potentially, many review committees could review applications responding to a single program announcement.
For NIAID, there is an exception to the rule above for career development (K) and training (T) awards. For K and T applications, NIAID oversees the initial peer review instead of CSR.
Institute review—Instead of CSR, institutes like NIAID oversee initial peer review of applications submitted for the following:
- Most requests for applications (RFA)*
- Most program announcements with set-aside funds (PAS)
- Some investigator-initiated applications (e.g., program projects)
*For applications responding to RFAs, the lead sponsoring institution usually conducts the review.
If you apply to a program announcement with special receipt, referral, and/or review considerations (PAR), your application might go to CSR or an institute. In either case, a special emphasis panel is likely to review your application. That means instead of requesting assignment to an integrated review group, we suggest that you focus on describing the scientific expertise necessary to review your application.
Note that we used the word “most” several times above, as there are exceptions. The best way to be certain of the locus of review is to reference the NOFO itself, as described above.
Supplement Applications
Applications for administrative supplements and research supplements do not undergo peer review; instead, staff of the awarding institute evaluate requests for a supplement to determine its overall merit. The same is true for applications submitted in response to a NOSI that leverages an administrative supplements NOFO for submission.
This difference is the basis for our requirement that work funded through an administrative supplement address an unforeseen need and not expand a project's scope from the original award—as the added work is not scrutinized through peer review, we avoid deviating from the project as it was evaluated in peer review.
Expertise Needed
Above, we noted that you can Use the PHS Assignment Request Form to help steer your application’s assignment to an appropriate study section.
You can also use that form to identify scientific areas of expertise needed to review your application. This is most helpful for multidisciplinary projects, where it is to your benefit to lobby for a breadth of expertise commensurate with your planned research. It’s also useful if you are working in an especially nuanced subfield that demands specialized knowledge for a fair evaluation of your project.
Additional Context
For more on this topic, read our guidance at First-Level Peer Review.