"Overall Impact" is Distinct from the Review Criterion "Significance"

The Enhancing Peer Review initiative has brought with it many changes, one of which is a new emphasis on overall impact.

What we call the “Overall Impact” of the application is the compilation of the evaluation of the review criteria. As reviewers assess Overall Impact, they take into account the individual review criteria and provide an overall evaluation of the likelihood for the project to exert a sustained, powerful influence on the research field(s) involved. The following points provide some clarification between Significance and Overall Impact:

Overall Impact

• Takes into consideration, but is distinct from, the core review criteria (significance, investigator(s), innovation, approach and environment).
• Is not an additional review criterion.
• Is not necessarily the arithmetic mean of the scores for the five scored review criteria.
• Is the synthesis/integration of the five core review criteria that are scored individually and the additional review criteria, which are not scored individually.

Significance, as we saw above, is one of the five scored review criteria. It is only one of the elements that will be taken into consideration when deciding the Overall Impact of the application.

Significance:

Is used for applications for research grants and cooperative agreements, among other programs.

Is evaluated and scored independently of the evaluation and scoring of investigator(s), innovation, approach and environment.

Assumes that the “aims of the project are achieved” and/or will be “successfully completed.”

Reviewers should evaluate the significance of the project within the context of a (research) field(s). For example, autism is a significant field of study but not all studies (projects) of autism are significant.

Research field(s) may vary widely, so reviewers should identify in their reviews the research field(s) within which the project addresses an important problem or critical barrier to progress.

For more guidance on Impact and Significance, refer to Guide Notice NOT-OD-09-025 and the Overall Impact versus Significance document. For additional resources on the Enhancing Peer Review initiative, including information on recent application changes, FAQs, and Training & Communication Resources, visit the Enhancing Peer Review Web site, for which helpful guidance is available in the Details of Application Changes.

Overall Impact	Reviewers will provide an overall impact/priority score to reflect their assessment of the likelihood for the project to exert a sustained, powerful influence on the research field(s) involved, in consideration of the following five core review criteria, and additional review criteria (as applicable for the project proposed).
Significance	Does the project address an important problem or critical barrier to progress in the field? If the aims of the project are achieved, how will scientific knowledge, technical capability, and/or clinical practice be improved? How will successful completion of the aims change the concepts, methods, technologies, treatments, services, or preventative interventions that drive this field?