[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 86 (Monday, May 5, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25606-25608]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-10203]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

National Institutes of Health


Center for Scientific Review Announcement of Requirements and 
Registration for Strategies To Strengthen Fairness and Impartiality in 
Peer Review

    Authority: 15 U.S.C. 3719.

SUMMARY: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Center for Scientific 
Review (CSR) is issuing a challenge titled ``Strategies to Strengthen 
Fairness and Impartiality in Peer Review.'' This notice provides 
information regarding requirements and registration for the challenge.

DATES: 
    Submission Period: May 5, 2014 through 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time, 
June 30, 2014.
    Judging Period: July 16, 2014 through August 29, 2014.
    Winners Announced: September 2, 2014.

ADDRESSES: Details on the NIH/CSR Peer Review process and current 
reviewer training materials can be found on the Reviewer Resources tab 
at www.csr.nih.gov (See NIH Peer Review Process Revealed and Resources 
for Reviewers). For questions about this challenge, please contact 
[email protected] or call at 301-300-3839.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Monica Basco, Center for Scientific 
Review, phone: 301-300-3839 or email at 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The mission of the NIH is to seek 
fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems 
and to apply that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and 
reduce the burdens of illness and disability. NIH has a longstanding 
and time tested system of peer review to identify the most promising 
biomedical research. The core values of NIH Peer Review are (1) expert 
assessment, (2) transparency, (3) impartiality, (4) fairness, (5) 
confidentiality, (6) integrity, and (7) efficiency. These values drive 
NIH to seek the highest level of ethical standards and form the 
foundation for the laws, regulations, and policies that govern the NIH 
peer review process.
    The NIH's Center for Scientific Review is issuing a challenge 
titled ``Strategies to Strengthen Fairness and Impartiality in Peer 
Review,'' under and consistent with sections 492 and 492A of the Public 
Health Service Act and federal regulations governing ``Scientific Peer 
Review of Research Grant Applicants and Research and Development 
Contract Projects'' (42 CFR Part 52h). The goal of this challenge is to 
seek ideas for strengthening reviewer training practices to enhance 
impartiality and fairness in peer review of grant applications. 
Research findings (Ginther et al, 2011; 2012) suggest a discrepancy in 
success rates for NIH R01 grant funding between White applicants and 
Black applicants, suggesting possible bias in the peer review process. 
This challenge aims to address that discrepancy by soliciting ideas for 
reviewer training methods to enhance fairness and impartiality in peer 
review. It directly supports the mission of CSR to ensure that the best 
and brightest minds have an equal opportunity to contribute to the 
realization of our national research goals.
    Subject of Challenge: The subject of this challenge is to seek 
ideas for reviewer training methods to enhance fairness and 
impartiality in peer review.
    The NIH Peer Review process is a dual peer review system used by 
NIH to award research funds. Under this system, each application must 
undergo two levels of NIH Peer Review. The first level of review is 
carried out by a Scientific Review Group (SRG) composed primarily of 
non-federal scientists who have expertise in relevant scientific 
disciplines and current research areas. The second level of review is 
performed by Institute and Center National Advisory Councils or Boards 
that make recommendations on priority areas of research, pending 
policy, and funding of particular applications. Councils are composed 
of both scientific and public representatives chosen for their 
expertise, interest, or activity in matters related to health and 
disease. Only applications that are recommended for approval by both 
the SRG and the Council may be recommended for funding. Final funding 
decisions are made by the director of the relevant NIH Institute or 
Center.
    NIH recognizes a unique and compelling need to promote diversity in 
the NIH-funded biomedical research workforce. The NIH expects efforts 
that diversify the workforce to lead to the recruitment of the most 
talented researchers from all groups, improve the quality of the 
training environment, balance and broaden the perspective in setting 
research priorities, and improve the Nation's capacity to address and 
eliminate health disparities. Yet, despite longstanding efforts from 
the NIH and other entities across the biomedical and behavioral 
research landscape to enhance the diversity of workforce, more work 
remains to be done. Recent studies (Ginther et al., 2011; 2012) have 
shown that African American researchers are less likely than White 
researchers to receive NIH R01 grant funding. These findings have 
raised concerns regarding the degree to which reviewers are 
demonstrating the core values of impartiality and fairness.
    This challenge seeks ideas for reviewer training methods aimed at 
enhancing fairness and impartiality in peer review. Submissions need 
not include fully developed training materials (See complete submission 
requirements below). However, ideas should be provided in sufficient 
detail to assess their ability to address and promote fairness and 
impartiality in the peer review of grant applications with regards to: 
gender, race/ethnicity, institutional affiliation, area of science, and 
amount of research experience of the applicant.
    Eligibility Rules for Participating in the Challenge: The challenge 
is open to any individual, group of individuals, or entity (each 
referred to in this notice as a ``participant'') who meets the 
eligibility criteria below. There is no limit to the number of entries 
a participant can submit.

[[Page 25607]]

    To be eligible to win a prize under this challenge:
    (1) The participant shall have registered to participate in the 
competition under the rules promulgated by CSR as described in this 
notice.
    (2) The participant (including each individual participating as a 
member of group participant) shall have complied with all the 
requirements under this section.
    (3) In the case of a private entity, the entity shall be 
incorporated in and maintain a primary place of business in the United 
States, and in the case of an individual, whether participating singly 
or in a group, each shall be a citizen or permanent resident of the 
United States.
    (4) Individuals (whether competing alone or as part of a group) who 
are younger than 18 must have their parent or legal guardian complete 
the Parental Consent Form. The form can be found on the Challenge Web 
page at www.csr.nih.gov.
    (5) The participant may not be a Federal entity or Federal employee 
acting within the scope of his or her employment.
    (6) The participant shall not be an HHS employee working on their 
applications or submissions during assigned duty hours.
    (7) The participant shall not be an employee of the National 
Institutes of Health, the Center for Scientific Review, a member of the 
Subcommittee on Peer Review or any other party involved with the 
design, production, execution, or distribution of the Challenge or 
their immediate family (spouse, parents or step-parents, siblings and 
step-siblings and children and step-children).
    (8) Federal grantees may not use Federal funds to develop COMPETES 
Act challenge applications unless consistent with the purpose of their 
grant award.
    (9) Federal contractors may not use Federal funds from a contract 
to develop COMPETES Act challenge applications or to fund efforts in 
support of a COMPETES Act challenge submission.
    (10) CSR reserves the right to cancel, suspend, modify the 
challenge and/or not award a prize if no submissions are deemed worthy.
    (11) CSR will claim no rights to intellectual property. By 
participating in this challenge, participant grants to CSR an 
irrevocable, paid-up, royalty-free, nonexclusive worldwide license to 
post, link to, share, and display publicly the submission on the Web, 
newsletters or pamphlets, and other information products such as a 
future Funding Opportunity Announcement or other study to develop the 
methodology. In addition, CSR may incorporate proposed ideas into a 
future Request for Applications (RFA), Request for Proposals (RFP) or 
an implemented study to develop the methodology, but an award of a 
prize does not guarantee the proposed idea will be implemented.
    (12) By participating in this challenge, participant agrees that 
the submission is participant's original work and that all proposed 
ideas are participant's original effort. It is the responsibility of 
the participant to obtain any rights necessary to use, disclose, or 
reproduce any intellectual property owned by third parties and 
incorporated in the entry for all anticipated uses of the submission. 
Submissions must not violate or infringe upon any copyright or any 
other rights of other parties, including, but not limited to, privacy, 
publicity or intellectual property rights, or material that constitutes 
copyright or license infringement.
    (13) By participating in this challenge, each participant 
(including each individual making up a group participant) agrees to 
assume any and all risks and waive claims against the Federal 
Government and its related entities, except in the case of willful 
misconduct, for any injury, death, damage, or loss of property, 
revenue, or profits, whether direct, indirect, or consequential, 
arising from participation in this prize challenge, whether the injury, 
death, damage, or loss arises through negligence or otherwise.
    (14) Based on the subject matter of the challenge, the type of work 
that it will possibly require, as well as an analysis of the likelihood 
of any claims for death, bodily injury, or property damage, or loss 
potentially resulting from challenge participation, participants are 
not required to obtain liability insurance or demonstrate financial 
responsibility in order to participate in this challenge.
    (15) By participating in this challenge, each participant agrees to 
indemnify the Federal Government against third party claims for damages 
arising from or related to challenge activities.
    (16) An individual shall not be deemed ineligible because the 
individual used Federal facilities or consulted with Federal employees 
during this challenge if the facilities and employees are made 
available to all individuals participating in the challenge on an 
equitable basis.
    (17) In the case of groups, a single, individual group member will 
submit the submission on behalf of the group and certify that the 
submission meets all challenge rules.
    (18) The decision of the award approving official is final and 
cannot be contested. The award approving official is the Director of 
the Center for Scientific Review.
    Submission Process for Participants: Participants should submit all 
entry materials to [email protected].
    Amount of the Prize: CSR may award up to two prizes. A First Prize 
in the amount of $10,000 and a Second Prize in the amount of $5,000 may 
be given. Each submission is eligible for only one prize (i.e., a 
single submission cannot win more than one prize for this challenge).
    Prizes awarded under this challenge will be paid by electronic 
funds transfer and may be subject to Federal income taxes. HHS will 
comply with the Internal Revenue Service withholding and reporting 
requirements, where applicable. If a group or entity is selected as a 
winner, CSR will pay the prize to an individual representative of the 
group designated in the cover letter required as part of the 
submission. To the extent applicable, it is this individual's 
responsibility to distribute the prize to group (or entity) members.
    Basis Upon Which Submissions Will be Evaluated: After CSR receives 
and de-identifies the submissions, the submissions will be evaluated 
according to a two-stage process: (1) Technical merit will be evaluated 
for potential to enhance fairness and impartiality in peer review 
(High, Medium, Low impact) by a panel of experts in fields relevant to 
peer review, evaluation and training methods, and bias in assessment, 
and (2) High Impact submissions will be evaluated and rank ordered 
based on the judging criteria (see judging criteria below) by a panel 
of judges comprised of federal employees who will recommend the winning 
entries.
    The final awards will be approved by the Director of the Center for 
Scientific Review; provided, however, that CSR reserves the right to 
cancel, suspend, modify the challenge and/or not award a prize if no 
submissions are deemed worthy.
    The judging criteria for this challenge are as follows.
     Demonstrates general knowledge of peer review practices.
     Grounded in the empirical literature.
     Feasible for implementation with reviewers in the NIH Peer 
Review system.
     The proposed methods could be delivered to reviewers in a 
variety of delivery formats, including an electronic format.

[[Page 25608]]

     Demonstrates an understanding of the literature on 
principles of learning/training.
     Effectively moves theory to practice.
     Provides evidence that supports the effectiveness of the 
approach in promoting fair and unbiased peer review.
    Submission Requirements: This challenge is for the solicitation of 
ideas for reviewer training methods to strengthen reviewer fairness and 
impartiality in NIH Peer Review. Submissions, therefore, need not 
include fully developed training materials. The following materials 
must be emailed to [email protected] or sent in hardcopy 
to the Office of the Director, Attention: Denise McGarrell, Center for 
Scientific Review, 6701 Rockledge Drive, Suite 3030, Bethesda, Maryland 
20892 by the deadline. Incomplete submissions will not be considered. 
All submissions must be written in English.
     Cover sheet with title of the submission and the 
participant's name or names of group members and contact information. 
In the case of groups (and entities), indicate one group member 
responsible for corresponding with CSR. Also indicate which group 
member will be responsible for receiving the prize for distribution, as 
applicable, among group members.
     Challenge submission documents. Note: The 2-page challenge 
idea should be anonymous (i.e., not include identifying information of 
the participant). Submissions shall not exceed 2 single-spaced pages 
(not to include cover page, references or parental consent document, if 
applicable) and shall be constrained to no less than one inch margins 
and 11 pt. Ariel font. All submissions must be submitted in .docx 
(Word) format. Submissions should include the following sections:
    Aims: Describe the goals for your proposed approach for reviewer 
training to enhance fairness and impartiality in peer review and the 
anticipated outcomes.
    Approach: Provide a detailed description of your proposed methods 
and procedures. Describe how you might measure the effectiveness of 
your plan in accomplishing your proposed aims.
    Implementation: Explain how your methods might be implemented as 
part of reviewer training. Include how your proposed method might be 
tested and, if effective, how it might be disseminated across the NIH.
     As applicable, the signed Parental Consent Document.
     Submissions not conforming to these specifications will be 
disqualified.

References

Ginther DK et al. (2011). Race, ethnicity, and NIH research awards. 
Science, 333 (1015-1019).
Ginther DK, Haak LL, Schaffer WT, & Kington R. (2012). Are race, 
ethnicity, and medical school affiliation associated with NIH R01 
type 1 award probability for physician investigators? Academic 
Medicine, 87 (11), 1516-1524.

    Dated: April 29, 2014.
Richard Nakamura,
Director, Center for Scientific Review, National Institutes of Health.
[FR Doc. 2014-10203 Filed 5-2-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4140-01-P