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Department of Health and Human Services
National Institutes of Health
National Institute on Drug Abuse
What Council is and What it Does
The National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse serves a crucial role in advising
NIDA, and, by extension, the Director, NIH and the Secretary, DHHS, as NIDA identifies,
reviews, and supports the highest caliber of scientific research. The Council's
18 person membership, consisting of 12 experts in scientific fields and six knowledgeable
members of the general public, as well as ex officio members who provide liaison
with other government entities, provides a valuable and unique source for consultation.
First and perhaps most visible of Council's functions is to provide a secondary
level of review for applications for federal assistance. The concurrence of the
Council with the results of the first level of review, which is the scientific
review group or peer review for scientific and technical merit, is required for
NIDA to fund an individual application for a grant or cooperative agreement. The
secondary level of review also includes Council's perspective on the peer review
system overall to help ensure the quality of review for scientific and technical
merit.
A second advisory function occurs in relation to policy and programmatic matters.
The Council provides NIDA input on ways to better carry out its knowledge development
and knowledge dissemination missions. It provides advice on research opportunities
to pursue, guidance on ways to improve approaches to stimulating research, suggestions
on methods to disseminate research-based knowledge, and ideas for working more
closely with constituent groups and consumers of NIDA's research.
In order to protect the confidentiality of applicants and proprietary information
in applications, the review-related functions of Council occur in sessions that
are open only to federal staff with a need to hear the Council's deliberations.
The broader policy and programmatic discussions occur in meetings that are open
to all interested members of the public. This, in effect, gives Council an additional
function. Through the presence of the public at the meeting and the opportunity
for the public to make comments to NIDA and the Council during a period of time
set aside for this purpose, the NIDA Council provides a forum for effective involvement
of the public in shaping NIDA's research and related scientific activities.
The Council meets three times a year, usually in February, May, and September
for 1 1/2 days. Typically, the first day of the meeting is a half-day session
devoted to reviewing grant applications, and this is closed to the public. The
second day is the open session, and issues such as training, research dissemination,
programs, and policy are discussed. The NIDA Director presents scientific and administrative
topics in the Director's Report. Council subcommittees report on their progress,
and staff and other speakers also present various topics. Please see earlier Council
agendas for an appreciation of the breadth of issues covered by the National Advisory
Council on Drug Abuse.
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