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Congress thinks that NIH's peer reviewers, who in 1990 rejected only 5 percent of the proposals they judged as members of NIH study sections, are too easy on scientists, and last year they asked NIH to do something about it. So last fall, as part of a broader series of changes in the peer review system, NIH created a new category--"not recommended for further consideration"--and told study sections to apply it to applications that reviewers felt did not make the grade. Preliminary results show that it's working: After the first round of study section meetings, some 15 percent of proposals are falling into the new category. That leaves NIH officials with a slightly smaller pool from which to make awards (only about one-third of ...