Written by: Susan M. Janicki, Ph.D. and Joseph Mallon, Ph.D.

On March 6, 2025, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced plans to centralize peer review of all applications for grants, cooperative agreements and research and development contracts within its Center for Scientific Review (CSR).[1]

The NIH, an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), distributes more than 80% of its approximately forty-seven-billion-dollar budget to research institutions across the United States through competitive research grants administered by one of its twenty-seven Institutes and Centers (ICs)[2] or the NIH Office of the Director.

All grant applications submitted to the NIH undergo a two-step review process: first for scientific and technical merit and second for mission relevance. The CSR is the entity at the NIH that receives all submitted applications and determines whether their initial review should be conducted by a scientific review group (i.e., a study section) within the CSR[3] or whether they should be referred to one of the ICs or the Office of the Director for scientific review. Following scientific review, advisory councils for the NIH ICs and the NIH Office of the Director make funding recommendations based on current research priorities and existing funding portfolios[4] with IC directors making the final funding decisions.

Currently, the scientific review of about 78% of all NIH applications is conducted by the CSR. The new centralization plan seeks to eliminate the IC-based study sections and have all first-level reviews conducted by the CSR. Large-scale clinical trials and projects with very specific review criteria are among the applications that would be affected by this change. The stated goals of this proposal are to save money by eliminating duplicative efforts across the agency, make the review process more efficient, and eliminate bias by completely separating the peer review and funding entities.

The implementation of this change is pending review by HHS and the Office of Management and Budget. A 15-day notification period will also be provided to Congress, and a Federal Register notice will be issued. This announcement comes on the heels of the NIH’s recently issued notice it would be reducing indirect cost rates for research grants[5], leaving researchers and research institutes with additional uncertainty around NIH awards and funding.

Editor: Brenden S. Gingrich, Ph.D.

[1] https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-centralizes-peer-review-improve-efficiency-strengthen-integrity

[2] https://www.nih.gov/institutes-nih/list-institutes-centers

[3] https://public.csr.nih.gov/StudySections/ReviewBranches

[4] https://grants.nih.gov/grants-process/review/second-level

[5] https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-25-068.html