Peer Review
Downloadable PDF Fact Sheet (436 KB)
What is the purpose?
Peer Review is a web-based module to facilitate the initial evaluation of research grant applications by peer review groups, composed of scientists who are experts in the relevant fields of research.
The Peer Review module allows NIH and Grantor Agency review staff (or members of NIH Institutes and Centers’ review programs) to enter and reuse key information including application data, list of prospective reviewers, committee rosters and reviewer assignments to prepare for, conduct and record outcomes of review meetings (including summary statements). The module covers coordination, planning, conducting reviews, making award recommendations and providing review output.What are the features?
The Peer Review module allows review administrators and their assistants to:
- Prepare applications for the meeting by viewing and editing the data associated with each application (using the Application Administration link on the module)
- Create, maintain and distribute lists of prospective reviewers (using the Reviewers and People Lists link)
- Assign reviewers to each application assigned to the specific meeting (using the Reviewer Assignments link)
- Pre and post meeting administration including creating meeting rosters, agendas and reports; and entering and releasing application scores
- Assign a review order to applications prior to the meeting, delete the list of scores and the reviewer list after a meeting and maintain the list of scientific terms associated with applications and reviewers (using the ‘Data Maintenance’ link)
- Optionally, generate and build a percentile base table, determine which applications receive percentile and generate reports of the created tables (using the ‘Percentiles’ link)
- Disseminate review data by ordering a CD for each reviewer with images
of assigned grant applications, along with meeting-specific
instructions for the review meeting, and prior Summary
statements
[Note: Reviewers using IAR access these meeting-specific materials directly from the web]. - Generate various reports in PDF or Excel format for pre and post meeting information (using the ‘Reports’ link)
What are the benefits?
The Peer Review module:
- Is an enterprise solution that facilitates the peer review of research grant applications, maintaining an information infrastructure that caters to all facets of peer review
- Creates/Reuses an enormous database of potential reviewers
- Allows review administrators to create, maintain and distribute lists of prospective reviewers
- Provides notifications to applicant organizations and Principal Investigators about review outcome
- Automatically checks for conflicts of interest between reviewers and applications
- Generates peer-review related reports, most downloadable to Excel spreadsheets
- Facilitates streamlining of the review meetings by assisting review administrators in identifying non-competitive applications prior to review meeting
- Peer Review seamlessly uses meeting data as set up in the Committee Management module, to meet the guidelines of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA)
Who can use the Peer Review module?
The Peer Review module can be accessed via IMPAC II by NIH and Grantor Agency peer review staffers who are assigned specific roles by their technical representatives. A valid IMPAC II Username and password are needed to log in.