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Since 2008, NIH’s Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools, better known as RePORT, has provided easy access to info on NIH funded research. My office continues to look at new ways to enhance your access to important information through robust search tools, data visualization dashboards, and more. I’d like to highlight one of our newer tools today: Matchmaker.
Matchmaker allows you to enter manuscript abstracts, research bios, or other scientific text, and retrieve a list of similar projects from the RePORTER database. After you submit your text (up to 15,000 characters in length), Matchmaker will analyze it for key terms and concepts, then pull up the top 100 most-similar NIH-funded projects, ranked by match score.
You’ll notice that it also returns several graphs to allow you to easily visualize the distribution of NIH institutes or centers funding these projects, what activity codes these projects use, and which study section the project was reviewed in. You can also click on these graphs to further refine your results as well. For example, you can click on a specific activity code and see how the study section or funding IC distribution changes.
Exploring NIH’s research portfolio can help you identify the best ICs to reach out to as you put together an application and where your application is likely to be reviewed. It can also help you identify collaborators, potential labs to move into if you’re a trainee, and more. Check out the video below and have fun making your match.
Where can I find translations of Study Section abbreviations listed in Matchmaker results (for example, ZEY1)?
A full list of study section rosters, including special emphasis panels, can be found on the eRA website: https://public.era.nih.gov/pubroster/
as well as on the website of the NIH Center for Scientific Review (CSR): http://public.csr.nih.gov/STUDYSECTIONS/Pages/default.aspx
Standing CSR study sections (AKA review panels) are listed here: http://public.csr.nih.gov/StudySections/Standing/Pages/default.aspx
Special Emphasis Panels (typically for RFAs and specific PARs) are listed here: http://public.csr.nih.gov/StudySections/SpecialEmphasis/Pages/default.aspx
Some institutes, such as NIMH, also have their own peer review committees, which review applications in particular domains or for institute-specific PARs. For example, NIMH review committees are listed here: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/funding/grant-writing-and-application-process/peer-review-committees.shtml