SRB is responsible for a broad range of functions related to the review of grant applications and contract proposals. The branch also provides policy direction and coordination for planning and conducting initial scientific and technical merit reviews of applications for numerous types of grant applications, including:
Program projects (P01s)
Centers (P20s, P30s, P50s, P2Cs, U24s, U54s)
Institutional training grants (T32s)
Career development awards (various Ks)
Conference grants (R13s)
Small research grants (R03s)
Multisite clinical trials (R01s)
Small business grants (SBIRs/STTRs)
Loan repayment program (LRP) grants L30, L40, L50
The branch also manages the technical evaluation of contract proposals that arrive in response to requests for proposals issued by the institute.
Other mechanisms, such as fellowships (Fs), small business grants (SBIRs/STTRs), R21s, R01s, and others, are also reviewed by the NIH Center for Scientific Review.
In addition to managing the subcommittees, scientific review officers also recruit extramural scientists to serve as peer reviewers and maintain oversight of all aspects of the peer-review process. Further, special emphasis panels, which are convened as technical evaluation groups, also evaluate contract proposals.
To review grant applications, SRB relies on eight subcommittees of the Child Health and Human Development (CHHD) IRG or, where appropriate, a special emphasis panel that is convened for its expertise in a specific area of science. The subcommittees of the CHHD IRG and the scientific areas reviewed within each subcommittee are as follows:
Biobehavioral and Behavioral Sciences Subcommittee addresses issues such as biobehavioral bases of intellectual and developmental disabilities, social development, cognition, language, at-risk development, health and behavior, emotion, basic human behavior, socioeconomic context, culture, child abuse and neglect, neuropsychology, memory, attention, service delivery, attitudes, basic animal behavior, and policies related to these topics.
Developmental Biology Subcommittee addresses issues such as biological bases of intellectual and developmental disabilities, molecular genetics, developmental genetics, developmental immunobiology, early embryonic development, teratology, cellular endocrinology, gene expression and therapy, developmental neurobiology, organogenesis, gastrulation, embryonic patterning, embryogenesis, cell biology, and cellular physiology and function.
Function, Integration, and Rehabilitation Sciences Subcommittee addresses issues such as clinical aspects of plasticity; recovery and adaptation; limb and joint mechanics; coordination, balance, and mobility; functional impairment and disability; rehabilitative engineering; orthotics, prosthetics, and assistive devices; therapeutic exercise; secondary consequences of disabilities; behavioral and psychosocial adjustment to disease, injury, and chronic disability; functional assessments; and outcomes, participation, and societal barriers for individuals with disabilities.
Health, Behavior, and Context Subcommittee addresses issues such as the relationships among health, health-related behavior, and environmental processes, conditions, and contexts; the effects of policy, neighborhood, community, school, cultural, parenting, and family influences on individual health, health-related behaviors, and health disparities; health conditions and behaviors, such as fitness, risky sexual behavior, substance use, violence, treatment-seeking, and adherence; health promotion, disease and injury prevention, health communication and education; and access to and use and delivery of health services.
Obstetrics and Maternal-Fetal Biology Subcommittee addresses issues such as pregnancy, labor, preeclampsia, lactation, placental function, reproductive immunology, and HIV infection.
Pediatrics Subcommittee addresses issues such as neonatology, perinatology, endocrinology, metabolism, nutrition and growth, pharmacology, epidemiology, pediatric critical care, pediatric infectious disease, and pediatrics (including birth defects).
Population Sciences Subcommittee addresses issues such as marriage and family; mortality and morbidity; immigration; internal migration; population distribution; economic demography and labor force; ethnography; population and environment; and social, economic, and demographic aspects of fertility and contraception, sexual behavior, policy, child well-being, transition to adulthood, child abuse and neglect, disability, AIDS/HIV/STDs, race and ethnicity, health, neighborhoods, geographic information systems, and culture.
Reproduction, Andrology, and Gynecology Subcommittee addresses issues such as reproductive biology, reproductive endocrinology, reproductive neuroendocrinology, reproductive genetics, andrology, gynecology, contraception, infertility, pelvic floor disorders, gametogenesis, fertilization, implantation, preimplantation embryo development, germ cell biology, embryonic stem cell biology, animal cloning, and sex determination.
Study section rosters, meeting schedules, and other information is available through the following links: