Peer Review Policies

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NIH centralizes peer review to improve efficiency and strengthen integrity

The National Institutes of Health has announced plans to centralize peer review of all applications for grants, cooperative agreements and research and development contracts within the agency’s Center for Scientific Review (CSR).

Laws and Regulations

NIH peer review is governed by a legal framework of federal Acts and Regulations:

PHS Act 42 U.S.C. 289a [PDF] requires that applications undergo two levels of peer review for a grant award to be made by the NIH.
PHS Act 42 U.S.C. 284a authorizes appropriate scientific and technical peer review through advisory committees.
The Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) lays out the provisions for how NIH peer review advisory committees are to be established and managed.
The Government in the Sunshine Act directs when advisory committee meetings may be closed or partially closed to the public.
42.CFR.52h [PDF] - Scientific Peer Review of Research Grant Applications and Research and Development Contract Projects establishes the rules for how applications submitted to NIH must be evaluated and how NIH peer review meetings are conducted.

Policies

NIH policies provide instructional guidance to ensure peer review regulations are appropriately implemented and the core values of NIH’s review process are followed. See below for information and resources on key review policies.