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NIH Director's Pioneer Award
Evaluation Process

EVALUATION OF NOMINATIONS (PHASE I)

4/2–4/16

NIH Institute staff will screen the NDPA nomination packages for administrative responsiveness to the NDPA announcement. Applications about which there is some ambiguity will be given a second screening prior to being turned down. All others will proceed to review by outside expert evaluators.

 

4/23–5/10

Responsive nominations will be assigned to three outside evaluators drawn from either of two groups of scientific expertise: (1) quantitative and mathematical biology; instrumentation and engineering; molecular and cellular biology; physiological and integrative systems; or (2) the behavioral & social sciences; pathogenesis & epidemiology; and clinical research. Evaluators in other disciplines may be chosen if the nominee made a specific request outside the above areas.

The individual evaluators will assign either a yes or no to the nominations for further consideration. They will accept a nomination if, in their judgment, it fulfills the intent of the NDPA. They will apply the following criteria:

  1. Evidence of scientific innovation/creativity
  2. Testimony of intrinsic motivation, enthusiasm and intellectual energy
  3. Potential for scientific leadership; evidence of, or potential for, effective communication/educator skills.

The evaluators also will look for evidence of interest in tackling particularly important problems relevant to the mission of the NIH.

 

5/20

The highest ranking nominees by total yes/no votes will be asked to submit an application. All other nominees will be notified that they were not selected to apply.

 

EVALUATION OF APPLICATIONS (PHASE II)

6/14–7/23

Applications are submitted as required by the instructions. The applications will include a 3–5 page essay written by the applicant, an example of the applicant's most important work, and three letters of recommendation. Each application package will be assigned to three outside evaluators. These individuals may include a sub-set of those who participated in review of the nominees. At least one of the three evaluators will be selected by relevant research area (i.e., quantitative and mathematical biology; instrumentation and engineering; molecular and cellular biology; physiological and integrative systems; behavioral & social sciences; pathogenesis & epidemiology; clinical research). The remaining evaluators may be assigned independent of the research area. Each evaluator will be asked to review the entire application package, judging the extent to which the applicant demonstrates the qualities expected of the recipient of the NDPA as well as an assessment of the candidate's ability to articulate a vision of the critical questions in a field of biomedicine and his/her prospective role in addressing these questions. The evaluators will use a point scale system for ranking and will be asked to identify and justify their top four applicants. (Details of the scoring system will be provided later.) Approximately 20 of the top ranking applicants will be invited to the NIH for interviews.

 

8/9–8/13

The finalists will be invited for interviews.

 

8/31–9/2

Interviews will be conducted at NIH by a group of scientists selected for their breadth of knowledge and interests.

 

9/3–9/10

Second level of review will be performed by mail ballot by members of the Advisory Committee to the Director, NIH.

Final selections will be made by the Director, NIH, shortly after.

 

9/20

Awards will be announced.

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