Speaking of Rich-Get-Richer in NIH Land

Oh this is rich. More money to consolidate boondoggle service cores?
Consolidation…to me that connotes a cost savings. Efficiency. And somehow even more cash is required to gain this efficiency?

I like the new Summary Statement Format

So the new bullet-point NIH grant review format has been in place for two rounds and I am finally hearing a bit of feedback from friends and colleagues. I also have had a chance to be subjected to a nonzero number of reviews as an applicant, instead of only as a reviewer.
Some of the chatter I am hearing reflects confusion.. with a lot of comment that the person (applicant) can’t tell how to interpret things. Even more frightening is one report of a Program Officer making the same complaint-after all the new format was supposed to be to help the POs make their decisions! That’s not a good thing.
From my small sample, I think it is perfectly fine. I mean, I used to go through the old summary statements with two highlighters- one for positive comments and one for negative comments -in the past. This just distills the process. The comments I’ve received are no more confusing than in the past and a lot of extraneous nattering has been left off.
I like it.