Peer review should fairly evaluate proposals from all scientists, regardless of their career stage or discipline, and avoid bias toward more conservative and proven approaches at the expense of innovation and originality. This can be accomplished by achieving the following:

• Funding the Best Science Earlier. To ensure that the largest number of high-quality and meritorious applications receive funding earlier and to improve system efficiency, NIH will enhance success rates of new and resubmitted applications by decreasing the number of allowed grant application resubmissions (amendments) from two to one.
• Early Stage and New Investigator Policies. NIH recently announced new policies modifying the NIH New Investigator Policy to identify Early Stage Investigators (ESIs) and establishing goals to encourage funding for New Investigators and ESIs.
• Clustering Applications in Review.  In 2009, where possible, NIH will cluster new investigator applications (including ESIs) for review. The same approach will be considered for clinical research applications.