Updates to NIH Fellowship, Training, and Career Development Applications: Referral and Review Highlights

If you’re planning to apply for an NIH fellowship (F), career development award (K), or training grant (T), staying informed about recent NIH efforts to centralize peer review can help you understand how your application may be assigned and reviewed. As supporting and sustaining the future research workforce remains a top priority for NIH leadership and reflected in the NIH Unified Funding Strategy, we remain committed to providing the information and resources early career researchers need to better understand evolving application and peer review processes. Here are the key takeaways as a start:

• Changes are designed to make review more consistent, transparent, and tailored to T, K, and F applications.
• Applications are reviewed alongside similar applications
• A Candidate’s potential and training goals carry increased weight since they have a more central focus rather than the sponsor or institutional reputation (see this archived NIH Open Mike blog) 

NIH has centralized peer review for all grants, cooperative agreements, and research and development contracts within the Center for Scientific Review (CSR), including for T, K, and F programs. This means your application will be assigned to a CSR-managed study section, even if it aligns closely with a specific NIH Institute or Center. 

Review Assignments for Training and Career Development Grants

When assigning applications to review branches, CSR considers both scientific area and grant types. Together, these factors help match your application to the branch best positioned to evaluate it. Within a review meeting, CSR clusters applications with similar review criteria (e.g. by grant type) to allow reviewers to better focus on the review criteria specific to those applications.   

New Study Sections Improve Transparency

CSR has established new recurring Special Emphasis Panels (SEPs) for training, fellowship, and career development awards. These panels:

• Improve consistency and predictability of review
• Group applications by scientific topic and activity code
• Have descriptions posted so researchers can better understand where their application may be reviewed and the scientific focus of each review panel

Fellowship Review Criteria Have Been Streamlined

For fellowship applicants, updated review criteria now focus on:

• Candidate preparedness and potential
• Research training plan
• Commitment to the candidate 

These changes place greater emphasis on your trajectory and training environment, while eliminating the requirement to submit grades.

Training Grant Application Updates

The updates to NIH Institutional Training Grant Applications include two key changes:

• Mentor training expectations are more clearly defined in the parent T32 Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO).
• Institutional Training data tables were updated to reduce burden, focus on trainee outcomes, and promote consistent information collection across training programs.
• There is also an emphasis on preparing trainees for a wide range of research and research-related careers.

If you’re interested in applying, please reach out to NIH program staff to get started and ask questions!