NIH Plans Overhaul of Peer-Review Process
Published March 24, 2025
By AACOM Government Relations
Federal Policy
OME Advocate
Osteopathic Research
- On March 6, 2025, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced an overhaul of its peer-review system, amid a myriad of other shakeups within the agency, with projected job cuts and savings of $65 million.
- With a stated goal of mitigating reputational bias, the new process would eliminate the first level of grant application review and scoring by study sections currently operated by Institutes and Centers and move them to the centralized Center for Scientific Review, which operates most first level reviews already.
- The plan will be evaluated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of Management and Budget, which will issue a report to Congress and likely a notice in the Federal Register.
- AACOM has long advocated for more osteopathic integration on NIH study sections and federal advisory councils, so we will be monitoring these systemic changes and looking for opportunities to promote osteopathic medicine.
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