Assignment of Application
What is a scientific review administrator (SRA)? SRAs have multiple responsibilities including: analyzing the scientific content of grant applications; identifying the scientists invited to serve on review committees; assigning the applications each member will review; organizing and running peer-review meetings to assess grant applications; providing applicants with a succinct written summary statement explaining how the review committee viewed the applications.
Applications must be submitted to the Center for Scientific Review (CSR). See Step 2 on where to send applications. The CSR is an NIH component that performs two main functions:
- Serves as the receipt and referral office for all NIH applications; and
- Convenes review committees (study sections) that review the majority of grant applications.
Applications submitted to CSR receive two assignments:
- The first assignment (programmatic) is to an NIH Institute or Center.
- Programmatic assignment is based on the overall mission, specific mandates and interests of the Institute or Center.
- The assigned Institute or Center is responsible for the overall administration of applications, and will potentially provide funding, depending on review and other considerations.
- Once assigned to a specific Institute or Center, your application will also be assigned to a Program Officer within that Institute or Center (see Step 1 for details on the Program Officer's role).
- The second assignment (review) is to the review cluster as well as to a particular review committee that will review the application, either at CSR or within an Institute or Center. For example, some grant applications that are assigned to NIMH are reviewed by NIMH Peer Review Committees instead of CSR.
- Review assignment is based on the specific review guidelines for each scientific review committee.
- The review process involves assessment of the scientific and technical merits of the application, and assignment of a priority score.
After submission, you may find out about the receipt and assignment of your application by logging onto your NIH eRA Commons account and viewing your application. The assignment of your application to a specific Institute or Center may take about a month or so to appear in the Commons, but the assignment to your specific program officer will take longer, and an interim program officer assignment may appear in the Commons for some time.
The assignment of your application to a specific review committee and scientific review administrator (SRA) may also take about a month or so to appear in the Commons. It is advisable to wait until you see an SRA assigned in the Commons to find out where your application has been assigned for review. If you have a question about review assignment, you can send an inquiry to nimhreviewassign@mail.nih.gov or contact the SRA. Before the review takes place, any questions about the review process should be directed to the SRA, whose contact details are available on the Commons.
Institutes reserve the right to return an application if they determine that it is not relevant to their scientific purview. This is the reason it is strongly suggested that you contact a program officer before submission. In this case, another Institute may be found to accept programmatic assignment of the application (this may or may not affect review location). If no Institute finds that your application is relevant to its mission, it could be returned to you prior to review. This is rare, but it happens - thus highlighting the need to check with program staff to ensure that your application fits within the Institute's mission.
