Part 9. Second-Level Review

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Table of Contents

• Are You Ready for This Part?
• Your Application Moves to NIAID
• Second-Level Review Is a Smaller Hurdle
• Second-Level Review Is Faster for Some Applications
• Outcomes of Second-Level Review

Are You Ready for This Part?

Part 9. Second-Level Review describes how NIAID's advisory Council recommends applications for funding.

Before reading this page, be sure that you . . .

• Know how to use this tutorial and where to find tools. Read How to Use the NIH Grant Cycle in Start Here. Find helpful Tools: application samples, checklists, timelines, and contacts.
• Have started preparing your just-in-time information. Read Prepare Your Just-in-Time Information in Part 8. Assignment and Review.
• Understand NIH peer review -- see Part 8. Assignment and Review.
• Know how to interpret your summary statement and who your program officer is. See Know What a Summary Statement Means in Part 8. Assignment and Review.

Your Application Moves to NIAID

After initial peer review, your application moves from CSR (for applications reviewed there) to NIAID for possible funding.

At that point, your contact person becomes the Institute program officer assigned to your application. His or her name is listed in your summary statement together with that of your grants management specialist. Contact your program officer after you receive your summary statement.

Find more information online:

• Budget and Funding SOPs
• Budgets, Planning, Funding questions and answers

Second-Level Review Is a Smaller Hurdle

Your biggest hurdle is initial peer review. Once you've cleared that, the second-level review is a small step, which ensures there are no administrative problems.

Most applications sail through second-level review without heavy scrutiny.

Nature of Second-Level Review

• By law, NIAID's main advisory Council must recommend an application before we can fund it.
• Second-level review is not a second scientific review.
• Rather, it looks at applications with potential barriers to funding such as human subjects and animal concerns or special circumstances such as foreign applications and renewal applications requesting more money than the limit.
• We describe what to do about bars to award at Know What a Summary Statement Means and Bars to Grant Awards SOP.
• Generally, our main advisory Council will not recommend your application for funding until you resolve the study section's concerns.
  • This usually means you must send us more information.
  • Contact your program officer quickly if you see problematic animal or human codes on your summary statement.

Find more information online:

• NIAID R01 Application to Award Timeline
• Council information
• Council SOPs
• Advisory Council questions and answers

	Did the study section have concerns for your application? Yes. Skip ahead to Outcomes of Second-Level Review. No. Continue to the next question.
	Does your application rank within the payline? No. Skip ahead to Outcomes of Second-Level Review. Yes. Continue reading.

Second-Level Review Is Faster for Some Applications

About eight weeks before each Council meeting, a subset of members gives an electronic expedited review to some applications.

Only three people perform the actual expedited review; then, the full Council ratifies the results at the live meeting.

• We use expedited review for applications that meet both of the following criteria:
  • Rank within its payline.
  • Have no concerns (e.g., human or animal codes) from the study section.
• Expedited review lets us make awards several months earlier than would otherwise be possible.
  • For the first two Councils -- January or February and April or May -- we can fund grants a few weeks after the initial peer review meeting.
  • Because September Council reviews applications for funding in the next fiscal year, those applicants may have to wait to get their awards after the Institute receives its next year's appropriation.
• The remaining applications have a regular second-level review at the Council meeting. NIAID makes those awards a few weeks after the meeting.

Any Council member participating in an expedited review may request that an application be reviewed by the full Council.

Outcomes of Second-Level Review

Whether the review was expedited or not, Council makes one of the following decisions for each application:

• Recommended for funding.
• Not recommended for funding.
• Deferred for re-review by the study section.

When Council recommends an application for funding, that doesn't necessarily mean it will receive an award. NIAID makes the final decision.

We may not fund your application because administrative issues need to be resolved. If your application scores beyond the payline, it may be deferred for a later funding decision, usually at the end of the fiscal year.

Program staff send you a letter six to eight weeks after the advisory Council meeting stating whether we will fund your application. More complex grant types may take longer. Talk to your program officer for advice.

Through selective pay and R56-Bridge awards, we fund some programmatically important R01 applications whose scores missed the payline, with Council approval. If you want details on these programs now, read more at NIAID May Approve Special Funding.

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	The next part of the NIH Grant Cycle: Application to Renewal is Part 10. Funding Decisions.

Help us improve our outreach to you by emailing deaweb@niaid.nih.gov.