On February 28, 2008, the Final Draft of the NIH 2007-2008 Peer Review Self-Study was submitted to Dr. Elias Zerhouni, Director of NIH, marking the end of the diagnostic phase of the peer review enhancement effort.

Please click the following link for the PDF file of Final Draft Report: Final Draft Report (PDF, 1.69MB)
(Persons with disabilities experiencing problems accessing portions of the above PDF file should contact Kerry Brink (301) 435-2641).

This Final Draft Report identifies the most significant challenges facing the NIH peer review system and proposes recommended actions. If you wish to comment on the Final Draft, please send your comments no later than Monday, March 17, 2008, via:

Electronically: PeerReviewRFI@mail.nih.gov

OR United States Mail:
Penny Wung Burgoon, Ph.D.
Senior Assistant to the Deputy Director
Office of the Director, NIH
One Center Drive,
Building 1, Room 114
Bethesda, MD
20892-0183

Background:

The NIH enjoys a longstanding history of supporting the most promising and meritorious biomedical and behavioral research using a broad range of approaches, strategies and mechanisms. A cornerstone of the system is the two-tiered peer review process. On June 8, 2007, Dr. Zerhouni, called upon leaders from across the scientific community and NIH to join a trans-NIH effort to examine peer review with the goal of optimizing efficiency and effectiveness, and to ensure that the NIH will be able to continue to meet the needs of the research community and public-at-large.
Dr. Zerhouni established two peer review working groups:

• The Advisory Committee to the Director Working Group (ACD WG), co-chaired by Dr. Keith Yamamoto, Executive Vice Dean, School of Medicine, UCSF and Dr. Lawrence Tabak, Director, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, NIH
• The Steering Committee Working Group (SC WG), co-chaired by Dr. Tabak and Dr. Jeremy Berg, Director, National Institute of General Medical Sciences, NIH

During the summer and fall of 2007, the working groups collected input and ideas for enhancing the peer review system from all stakeholder communities (i.e. extramural community, advocacy groups, professional society groups, and NIH staff). This process included an online Request for Information (RFI), an NIH-internal survey, an interactive website for liaisons, analyses of previous and existing peer review experiments and practices at the NIH and other agencies (international and domestic), direct communication with stakeholders through teleconferences with Deans, emails, letters, and a series of internal and external consultation meetings and regional meetings across the nation.

The NIH Director will carefully consider the challenges and recommendations reflected in the Draft Report and work with the Steering Committee Peer Review Implementation Group to develop an implementation plan. NIH will formally announce the new initiatives it plans to implement in the spring of 2008.

The following lists source documents (including links) of the diagnostic phase (June 2007 – February 2008) of the enhancing peer review effort:

• February 21, 2008, ACD Teleconference - Peer Review Recommendations
  • Agenda
  • Slides (PDF, 180KB)
  • ACD Comments - Transcript (PDF, 109KB)
• December 7, 2007, ACD Meeting - Report of the Peer Review Preliminary findings
  • ACD Meeting Slides - December 7, 2007
• Request for Information (RFI) (July–September – ended September 7, 2007)
  • Analysis of Comments: http://enhancing-peerreview.nih.gov/meetings/Peer_Review_Report_2007_12_03v3.pdf
  • Comment Data
  • RFI Questions: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-07-074.html
• Three Regional Meetings:
  • San Francisco – October 25, 2007
    • Agenda
    • Meeting Summary (PDF, 166Kb)
  • New York City - October 8, 2007
    • Agenda
    • Meeting Summary
  • Chicago – September 12, 2007
    • Agenda
    • Meeting Summary
• Two External Consultative meetings in Washington, D.C.:
  • Advocacy Groups – October 22, 2007
    • Agenda
    • Meeting Summary
  • Professional Societies – July 30, 2007
    • Agenda
    • Invitation to Present
    • Meeting Summary
• Deans’ Webcast – July 31, 2007
  • Slides (PDF, 370Kb)
  • Webcast video
• Steering Committee Working Group Internal NIH Staff Consultative Meetings:
  • August 16, 2007
    • Agenda
    • Webcast video (NIH only)
    • Meeting Summary
  • July 31, 2007
    • Agenda 
    • Webcast video (NIH only)
    • Meeting Summary
  • July 18, 2007
    • Agenda
    • Slides (PDF, 308Kb)
    • Webcast video (NIH only)
    • Meeting Summary