NINDS Grant Appeals

For a complete description of NIH's policy, procedures, and responsibilities for providing timely and appropriate NIH action when an applicant for an NIH grant expresses in writing concerns about the peer review of his/her application, please see http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/not97-232.html. The following is a description of the NINDS implementation of this process.

Principal investigators may appeal a review and request a re-review of their application based on allegations of flaws in a procedural aspect of the review. For example, they may allege that the review was biased, a conflict of interest existed, the review group lacked appropriate expertise, and/or there were factual errors in the review that could have substantially altered the outcome.  Appeals may be submitted any time after the summary statement has been transmitted to the applicant and must be submitted no later than 30 calendar days after the relevant Council meeting.

Investigators should not attempt to contact individual members of the study section or the National Advisory Council. Instead, the investigator should first contact the Program Director assigned responsibility for the application. (See contact information in your eRA Commons file.) Most matters can be resolved at this level. Program Directors can answer questions about the summary statement and score and may be able to provide additional information that was not contained in the summary statement. They may recommend revising the application per the issues raised in the review or advise reconsideration of the basic intent of the project and recommend submitting a new application.

If the discussion with the Program Director does not result in a satisfactory resolution of the principal investigator's concerns, the investigator should submit a formal appeal letter to the Program Director, explaining in detail the reasons for appeal. The investigator will receive an acknowledgement letter within ten days of receipt of his or her letter. The appeal letter is submitted to the Staff Peer Review Appeals Group (the program director, the scientific review administrator, and their respective supervisor or team leader) for deliberation. If the Staff Peer Review Appeals Group unanimously agrees with the principal investigator, the investigator will receive a letter informing him or her that the application will be re-reviewed. If the Appeals Group does not agree with the P.I., the appeal letter will be sent to members of the National Advisory Neurological Disorders and Stroke Council (NANDSC) for their consideration. The P.I. will be notified in writing of any change in the status of the application as a result of the NANDSC deliberations within ten days of its decision.