Goal: To develop a new, viable method of scientific peer-review for grant applications submitted to NIH. This new method, based upon the use of a threaded message board with features tailored to NIH review, permits the asynchronous discussion and private scoring of grant applications without the need for concurrent assembly or teleconference. As an alternative review format, it complements and extends the ways that CSR conducts peer-review at NIH.

Expected Benefits: Use of AED as an alternative peer-review format should—

• Provide greater flexibility for scheduling and running peer-review meetings at NIH.
• Expand the potential reviewer base, enabling the participation of reviewers who do not wish to travel and/or live in far-away places. Reviewers in different time-zones can easily participate without the time constraints imposed by a synchronous teleconference.
• Enhance the dynamics of discussion at the meeting. Separating reviewers across time and space may allow for a more thoughtful and thorough discussion and different reviewer personalities are enabled in this less confrontational environment.
• Simplify the management of conflicts during the meeting.
• Reduce costs.

Status: AED began operating as a major CSR initiative in the 2007/01 council round and as of December 2007 has been used in over 250 meetings involving about 3,800 applications and 3,300 reviewers. Version 3.0 of the developed software was released for the 2008/05 council round, with the following major enhancements:

• A completely redesigned interface with improved navigation and operation for both reviewer and NIH staff.
• Improved method for authenticating users on the AED server.
• Improved speed resulting from substantive changes to the underlying software code and significant hardware upgrades.

While AED is currently a CSR-initiative, select AED review meetings from other NIH Institutes are also being supported and wider adoption is encouraged.

As part of the evaluation of the success of this effort, reviewers who participated in AED reviews between June and December 2006 were asked via e-mail to respond to a Web-based survey. Results of this survey have been posted online. A second reviewer survey has been employed for the 2008/05 council round.

Schedule for Implementation: This AED project will continue as a CSR initiative for the foreseeable future, with a production version of the software anticipated by the 2008/10 council round. Expansion of the AED project outside of CSR and its incorporation into the NIH enterprise (i.e., part of eCommons) is still being discussed and evaluated.