What Happens at Sponsor?

1. What Happens at Sponsor? Alex Galea Assistant Director

2. Structure of the NIH • Intramural Research • Research done onsite by NIH scientists • 9% of the NIH budget • Extramural Research – 82% of budget • Research grants • Training • R& D contracts • Research Management & Support

3. NIH Grant Application Cycle Sent to Center for Scientific Research and assigned to Scientific Review Group Scientific Review Group decides on score for the proposal Proposal Sent to NIH PI’s proposal is accepted and PI receives award notice Proposal sent to the appropriate Institute Advisory Council PI’s proposal is rejected. PI can revise and resubmit proposal

4. Scoring • Approximately half of grants don’t get scored and are not discussed at the study section meeting. So you get reviews, but no discussion and no overall priority score. • New scoring system gives reviewersratings of each scoring criteria • Scored grants (and grant elements) are rated from 1 – 9: • 1 = perfect score; 9 = worst possible score

5. SCORING CRITERIA Score Descriptor Additional Guidance on Strengths/Weaknesses • 1 Exceptional Exceptionally strong with essentially no weaknesses • 2 Outstanding Extremely strong with negligible weaknesses • 3 Excellent Very strong with only some minor weaknesses • 4 Very Good Strong but with numerous minor weaknesses • 5 Good Strong but with at least one moderate weakness • 6 Satisfactory Some strengths but also some moderate weaknesses • 7 Fair Some strengths but with at least one major weakness • 8 Marginal A few strengths and a few major weaknesses • 9 Poor Very few strengths and numerous major weaknesses Minor Weakness: An easily addressable weakness that does not substantially lessen impact Moderate Weakness: A weakness that lessens impact Major Weakness: A weakness that severely limits impact

6. PERCENTILES • Also get a percentile rank • Percentile lets you compare your grants score to the likely payline (cutoff percentile score). The lower the percentile and the score, the better. Fundable % scores generally published every year by the I/C • Example • Score : 21, 11% • Payline: 15% - grant is nearly sure to be funded

7. Paylines Differ • Year by year, given level of NIH budget • Institute by Institute – depends on budget level and their long-term commitments • Depending on the Investigator – Advantage given to new investigators (sometimes get extra 5% points). People who have had K awards or small R grants are still considered new investigators