Goal: The Extramural Activities Working Group (EAWG) charged the application committee with considering the shortening and restructuring of the main R01 NIH grant application (specifically shortening the research plan, sections A-D, to something less than the present 25 pages).

Expected benefits: A shorter application would be less burdensome to applicants and reviewers and would save such resources as paper. Furthermore, a shorter, restructured grant application may improve the thrust of projects to put more emphasis on advancing the field and less on conservative science.

Status: The application committee wrote a Request for Information (RFI) that was open for 90 days and closed January 5, 2007. The responses were impressively numerous, more than 5000, and strongly in favor of shortening, by about 3:1. The committee met in February and March to analyze the results of the RFI and develop recommendations.

Schedule for Possible Implementation: While two trans-NIH Committees are taking a broad look at peer review in an integrated manner over the next few months, CSR is exploring the possibility of conducting a pilot to assess shorter applications that would be submitted in response to multiple Requests for Applications issued by the NIH Institutes.  About seven pilots are being pursued which would assess applications that limit the research plan to 7, 10 or 15 pages. For the assessments, CSR is developing a questionnaire to gather feedback from reviewers and staff. This overall initiative will likely be guided by additional input gathered from the trans-NIH effort currently underway to seek stakeholder input on the NIH grant and peer review system.

More Information (PowerPoint)