Transcript What Happens at Sponsor?

What Happens at Sponsor?
Alex Galea
Assistant Director
Structure of the NIH
 Intramural Research
 Research done onsite by NIH scientists
 9% of the NIH budget
 Extramural Research – 82% of budget
 Research grants
 Training
 R& D contracts
 Research Management & Support
NIH Grant Application Cycle
Proposal Sent to
NIH
Scoring
 Approximately half of grants don’t get scored and are not
discussed at the study section meeting. So you get reviews,
but no discussion and no overall priority score.
 New scoring system gives reviewers ratings of each scoring
criteria
 Scored grants (and grant elements) are rated from 1 – 9:
 1 = perfect score; 9 = worst possible score
SCORING CRITERIA
Score
Descriptor
Additional Guidance on Strengths/Weaknesses

1
Exceptional
Exceptionally strong with essentially no weaknesses

2
Outstanding
Extremely strong with negligible weaknesses

3
Excellent
Very strong with only some minor weaknesses

4
Very Good
Strong but with numerous minor weaknesses

5
Good
Strong but with at least one moderate weakness

6
Satisfactory
Some strengths but also some moderate weaknesses

7
Fair
Some strengths but with at least one major weakness

8
Marginal
A few strengths and a few major weaknesses

9
Poor
Very few strengths and numerous major weaknesses
Minor Weakness: An easily addressable weakness that does not substantially lessen impact
Moderate Weakness: A weakness that lessens impact
Major Weakness: A weakness that severely limits impact
PERCENTILES
 Also get a percentile rank
 Percentile lets you compare your grants score to the
likely payline (cutoff percentile score). The lower the
percentile and the score, the better. Fundable %
scores generally published every year by the I/C
 Example
 Score : 21, 11%
 Payline: 15% - grant is nearly sure to
be funded
Paylines Differ
 Year by year, given level of NIH budget
 Institute by Institute – depends on budget level and their
long-term commitments
 Depending on the Investigator – Advantage given to new
investigators (sometimes get extra 5% points). People
who have had K awards or small R grants are still
considered new investigators