Background
A toolkit incorporating best practices for recruiting reviewers will be made available to all ICs in 2009.

• 2008 Academic Rank of CSR Reviewers (PDF - 31 KB)
• Increased Use of Adhoc Reviewers (Final Report, page 29) (PDF - 1.61 MB) - One effect of this application surge has been a steady increase in the number of temporary reviewers, rising to a high of approximately 15,000 in FY 2005. Most recently these numbers have been reduced to approximately 12,000, due in part to a modest increase in the number of charter study section members. Many stakeholders noted the inherent drawbacks of using temporary reviewers who remain for only a short period of time, yet vote for all applications that are considered while they are in attendance.
• Increase in Reviewer Workload (Final Report, page 30) (PDF - 1.61 MB) - Another trend contributing to the need for additional reviewers has been the attempt to reduce individual reviewer workload. The average number of applications reviewed per reviewer has steadily decreased from just slightly less than 12 applications per reviewer in the mid-1990s to a low of six applications per reviewer in 2005. Over the past 2 years however, the trend appears to be increasing again: Each reviewer is now reviewing, on average, seven applications.