Bruce Reed, Deputy Director
How will study sections meet in the future? NIH peer review depends on robust meetings where groups of scientists, through vigorous discussion, identify the applications of highest merit. For the last 75 years, until last March, nearly all chartered review committee meetings were held in-person. Today, in response to the pandemic, 90% of all CSR review meetings are run as video (“Zoom”) meetings. CSR is taking steps now so that when all options are back on the table, we can make informed choices about how best to convene review meetings.
Last round we obtained survey responses from 3,000 NIH reviewers, ratings by scientific review officers (SRO) of 230 review meetings, compiled quantitative data comparing in-person versus Zoom instances of over 275 meetings, analyzed rosters from those meetings, and also surveyed our support staff.
The data give no indication that the forced switch to Zoom has introduced major problems. Quality of review is our number one priority; 60% of reviewers and 85% of SROs say that overall quality has remained the same.
Read more https://www.csr.nih.gov/reviewmatters/2020/11/13/should-we-keep-meeting-this-way/