The National Institutes of Health announced in the September 23 NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts that it will extend its use of a triage system to all investigator-initiated research grant (R01) and "FIRST Award" (First Independent Research Support and Transition Award, R29) applications submitted for October/November 1, 1994 receipt dates and reviewed by the NIH Division of Research Grants (DRG) at the February 1995 study-section meetings.
Under triage, R01 and R29 applications deemed by reviewers to be "noncompetitive" (NC) at current funding levels are not discussed at study-section meetings and are not routinely forwarded to the relevant advisory council, the second level of NIH peer review. To be categorized as NC, an application must be judged so by at least two assigned reviewers--but an application can be recalled for full review by even a single study-section member at any time before or during the meeting. Members are advised to ...
