NIH Peer Review Meeting

From MLA National:

The following memo and attached agenda from MLA’s Washington representatives describes a meeting convened Monday, 30 July, 2007 by the NIH to gather input from professional medical societies regarding efforts to enhance the NIH peer review process.

JULY 30, 2007

MEMORANDUM

TO: MLA/AAHSL LEGISLATIVE TASK FORCE
FR: DALE DIRKS AND DANE CHRISTIANSEN
RE: NIH MEETING ON PEER REVIEW PROCESS

Today, the National Institutes of Health convened a meeting in Washington to solicit input from professional medical societies regarding efforts to enhance the NIH peer review process. The meeting was facilitated by NIH Director Dr. Elias Zerhouni, and the co-chairs of the Working Group of the Advisory Committee on NIH Peer Review; Dr. Lawrence Tabak, Director of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, and Dr. Keith Yamamoto, Executive Vice Dean of the School of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco.

Dr. Zehrouni discussed how the peer review process has remained largely unchanged for decades and how the increasing complexity of biomedical research may be hindered by the present system. In recognition of this fact, NIH created a forum for recommendations, no matter how ambitious, to improve the peer review process. This effort was initiated via the release of a “Request for Information (RFI)” by NIH on July 6th entitled, the “NIH System to Support Biomedical and Behavioral Research and Peer Review.” The most innovative recommendations received through the RFI and meetings with stakeholders will be developed into pilot experiments and, pending their success, incorporated into the NIH peer review process.

Future meetings with the medical community are scheduled for New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. A final meeting in Washington, D.C. solely for patient organizations is being organized as well.

Attached is the meeting agenda.

Please see the link below for more information on the RFI:

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-07-074.html