NIH takes a hard look at its grant system

Jeffrey Brainard takes an interesting perspective in today’s Chronicle of Higher Education on-line at the comprehensive review that is taking place within NIH on its granting system. The article is behind the firewall….here’s the key quote:

“Increasingly, reviewers are taking an adversarial stance — they think their role is to try to figure out how the applicant was trying to trick the government into giving them money,” said Keith R. Yamamoto, executive vice dean of the University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine.

“That’s not exactly what we’re looking for in a healthy review endeavor,” said Mr. Yamamoto at an October meeting. He is a co-chairman of a working group overseeing the NIH’s evaluation of its peer-review process and a long-term member of a peer review panel.

Jim