Welcome!

Thank you for your interest in helping improve peer review at CSR.

Overview

Issues Addressed

Individuals Encouraged to Attend

Meeting Schedule

Workshop Reports

Additional Information

Overview

CSR hosted six one-day Open House Workshops in 2007 at NIH to solicit input from leaders of the scientific community and other stakeholders on the alignment of its Integrated Review Groups (IRGs) and component study sections, which assess NIH grant applications for scientific and technical merit. 

Why? The IRGs had not been broadly assessed by the scientific community since the NIH Panel on Scientific Boundaries for Review (PSBR) developed a reorganization plan seven years ago. Convening the Open Houses represented a comprehensive effort to engage stakeholders from all the many scientific disciplines to ensure their voices are heard and CSR’s review groups are properly aligned and prepared for the future.  This input will greatly accelerate planned, multiyear assessments. 

Broad Community Input Sought: The study section and IRG boundaries were intended to be dynamic and change to keep pace with the ever-changing landscape of science. With the guidance of the NIH Peer Review Advisory Committee (PRAC), CSR has conducted surveys and convened internal and external working groups according to schedules that will ensure that all IRGs are assessed regularly. CSR convened the Open Houses to seek broad-based input on how well the study sections and IRGs are serving new and emerging areas of science.

Both Change and Continuity Needed: The boundaries of study sections and IRGs were designed to be flexible to accommodate evolving fields of research. The Open House discussions were  predicated on the PSBR principles:     

·         Applications that apply to a given disease/organ system are best reviewed in the context of the biological question being addressed.

·         Study section boundaries should not be too broad or too narrow.

·         Sufficient overlap should exist between other study sections inside and outside their IRGs.

·         Clinical applications should be clustered when possible.

Issues Addressed at the Open Houses

·         What will be the most important questions and/or enabling technologies you see forthcoming within the science of your discipline in the next 10 years?

·         Is the science of your discipline, in its present state, appropriately evaluated within the current study section alignment? Suggestions?

Individuals Encouraged to Attend

·         Scientific representatives from scientific societies and disease groups. These organizations are asked to send no more than two representatives each (per meeting) to facilitate focused and meaningful discussions.

·         Chairs of the respective study sections.

·         Members of the NIH Peer Review Advisory Committee.

·         Senior NIH and CSR officials.

Meeting Schedule 

Date	Integrated Review Groups (IRGs)
Mar. 2, 2007	Neurological IRGs Brain Disorders and Clinical Neuroscience (BDCN) Integrative, Functional and Cognitive Neuroscience (IFCN) Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Neuroscience (MDCN)
Apr. 25, 2007	Behavioral and Social Science IRGs Biobehavioral and Behavioral Processes (BBBP) Health of the Population (HOP) Risk, Prevention and Health Behavior (RPHB)
Jun. 29, 2007	Disease-based IRGs AIDS and Related Research (AARR) Infectious Diseases and Microbiology (IDM) Oncological Sciences (ONC) Surgical Sciences, Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (SBIB)
Aug. 24, 2007	Integrated Biological IRGs -- 1 Digestive Sciences (DIG) Musculosketal, Oral and Skin Sciences (MOSS) Renal and Urological Sciences (RUS) Endocrinology, Metabolism, Nutrition and Reproductive Sciences (EMNR)
Nov 9, 2007	Integrated Biological IRGs -- 2 Immunology (IMM) Hematology (HEME) Cardiovascular Sciences (CVS) Respiratory Sciences (RES) Biology of Development and Aging (BDA)
Dec. 18, 2007	Biomolecular IRGs Biological Chemistry and Macromolecular Biophysics (BCMB) Bioengineering Sciences and Technologies (BST) Cell Biology (CB) Genes, Genomes and Genetics (GGG)

Workshop Reports

The collected comments from the workshops are posted on the CSR Open House Reports Web page.  Anyone wishing to provide additional input about specific CSR peer review groups are encouraged to submit them to CSR. The consolidated comments will then be presented to the NIH Peer Review Advisory Committee, which will guide CSR as it works to implement changes and address concerns raised at the open house meetings.

Additional Information

If you have questions or comments, please send an e-mail to the Open House Project Coordinator at openhouse@csr.nih.gov or call 301.435.1114, or Fax 301.480.3965.