Should the NIH R01 Grant Application Be Shorter? Results of National Public Survey and NIH Peer Review Advisory Committee

At the recent NIH Peer Review Advisory Committee (PRAC) meeting, co-chairs of the NIH Grant Application Committee presented responses to the NIH’s Request for Information (RFI): Possible Page Limit Reduction For the Research Plan Section of the Research Project Grant (R01) Application submitted by over 5,000 applicants and reviewers.

Background:

• Applicants and reviewers often express that the R01 grant application focuses too much on detailing methods and not enough on scientific significance and impact
  
• NIH grant applications are very long and take a lot of time to write and to peer-review
  
• Insufficient numbers of quality reviewers willing to review grants
  

An preliminary analysis of responses indicate that the most supported shortening the grant application. Of the total responses submitted, committee members then analyzed 500 randomly selected responses in detail. Based on this input, the committee made the following recommendations:

• The research plan section of the application should be shortened—a majority favored 15 pages
  
• Instructions to applicants and reviewers should be modified to emphasize impact
  
• Sections of the application should be more closely aligned with the review criteria

Other selected findings: