Help Us Strengthen Rigor of Animal Research: Public Feedback Requested

June 23, 2020

Ever figured out a clever solution to a vexing challenge that affected the rigor of your work with laboratory animals, and then thought that those solutions could improve the quality and transparency of animal research supported across NIH? Recently found yourself at virtual lab meetings brainstorming ways to facilitate translating the findings from your animal study to human biology and disease? Questioned the status quo on how the research culture drives the choice of animal models and the design of experiments? Well, we want to know more.

New Steps to Help Ensure Safe Work Environments for NIH-Supported Research

June 11, 2020

If an institution requests approval to remove a principal investigator (PI) or other senior key person named in the grant award due to concerns about safety and/or the work environments (e.g. due to concerns about harassment, bullying, retaliation, or hostile working conditions), NIH expects to be notified. If an institution requests a change of recipient institution, and there are concerns about safety and/or work environment involving the PD/PI, NIH expects to be informed.

Accepting Preliminary Data as Post-Submission Material and Other COVID-19-Related Application Flexibilities

June 9, 2020

As our nation looks to begin reopening, NIH continues to track how well our policies are meeting the evolving needs of the research community. In this post we would like to highlight allowance of preliminary data as a new special exception to our post submission materials policy and our guidance for reviewers.

Emerging Research Now Available Through New NIH Preprint Pilot

June 9, 2020

Preprints – complete, public drafts of scientific documents that are not yet certified by peer reviewed – are playing a key role in accelerating dissemination of research on the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19, highlighting a need for broader discovery and distribution of early research results in literature searches. Responding to this urgent need, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) has launched the NIH Preprint Pilot, which will test the viability of making preprints searchable in PubMed Central (PMC) and, discoverable in PubMed, starting with preprints reporting NIH-supported COVID-19 research.

Anonymizing Peer Review for the NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award Applications

May 27, 2020

NIH is seeking applications for the 2021 Transformative Research awards through a new funding opportunity (RFA-RM-20-013) recently released on Friday, May 21, 2020. And, as a way to address concerns about bias in peer review while also enhancing diversity, this High Risk, High Reward program is going to anonymize the review of Transformative Research Award applications.

Temporary, Emergency Situations Due to COVID-19 and Application Scores Received During Peer Review

April 21, 2020

As we continue to address the effects of the COVID-19 public health emergency on NIH-supported research, we are aware of applicant concerns about the potential impact of this temporary emergency situation on the outcome of peer review. We want to reassure applicants that we released guidance for reviewers that makes it clear that, when reviewing applications during the coronavirus pandemic national emergency, reviewers should assume that issues resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, such as the following, should not affect scores.

Cyber Safety & COVID-19

April 17, 2020

The current outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has introduced new cybersecurity risks both at NIH and across the globe. As targeted phishing attacks prey on our desire to access trustworthy information and many of us make a shift toward remote work, we all need to be vigilant and take accountability for cyber safety. Here are some key tips to stay safe and avoid scams.