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March 2004 Lab Animal Volume 33, No. 3 REGULATION WATCH
M. Shalev, MSc, VMD, Column Editor
NIH Revises Rules of Conflict of Interest of Grant Peer Reviewers
On 5 January, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued a final rule, effective 4 February, that revises 42 CFR Part 52h, the regulations governing scientific peer review of research grant applications, research and development contract projects, and project proposals. The revised regulation clarifies the review criteria and revises conflict of interest requirements of reviewers1. We present this development here, because the majority of biomedical research funds in academic institutions come from NIH, the scientific peer reviewers from these academic institutions.
The Process of Reviewing NIH Grant Applications
Applications to NIH to fund grants for biomedical and behavioral research, NIH research and development contract project concepts, and contract proposals are reviewed sequentially for the purpose of funding by two scientific peer review systems. A panel of experts by specialty, called a Scientific Review Group (SRG), performs an initial review for scientific merit of each grant application. The application is then reviewed by National Advisory Boards, or Councils, composed of scientific and lay representatives who base their recommendations on those of the SRG Boards and on the relevance of the proposals to the programs and priorities of NIH. Concurrence of both SRGs and Councils is required for an NIH award.
This process is intended to separate the scientific assessment of proposals from policy decisions about scientific areas to be supported and the level of resources to be allocated. NIH believes it provides NIH with evaluations more objective and complete than a single review system, and the best advice about scientific and technical merit, program priorities and policy considerations.
The new regulations define and clarify conflict of interest of these expert reviewers as follows:
Definition of Real Conflict of InterestUnder the NIH definition, Real conflict of interest means a reviewer or a close relative or professional associate of the reviewer has a financial or other interest in an application or proposal that is known to the reviewer and is likely to bias the reviewers evaluation of that application or proposal...