This past May, the NIH Center of Scientific Review (CSR) released a new assignment request form that grant seekers can use to note their preference for a particular Institute/Center (IC) and study section. A new podcast, “Using the PHS Assignment Form,” helps listeners understand how to use the form and why it was developed.
Historically, applicants would include such requests in their cover letters. This caused difficulties because “letters were often lengthy narratives about the science or the impact of the work that they plan to do,” said CSR’s Dr. Cathie Cooper, director, Division of Receipt and Referral. “During peak periods of application submission, when we’re processing hundreds of applications a day, that makes it very easy to miss the request,” she explained. So CSR created the request form to help speed the process of matching the science in an application with an IC and one of the several hundred review groups.
Dr. Cooper also recommended applicants use the NIH eReporter, a database of funded grants, to search for studies with similar science to learn which study section and IC they were assigned, and so might prove a good match.
In addition to the preference for IC and study section, the form also enables applicants to note potential reviewers with whom they may have a conflict and fields for keywords.
Although the referral form is never required, the cover letter might be. The CSR’s Application Guide and the podcast both highlight issues that require discussion in a grant cover letter.