Peer Review Committees

Grant applications that are assigned programmatically to the NIMH (i.e., are given an MH application number) are also given an assignment to a peer review committee. These committee assignments are either to the Center for Scientific Review (CSR), which serves all funding Institutes and Centers of the NIH, or to the NIMH Extramural Review Branch. Information about the committees in both of these locations is given below. A good rule of thumb is that your application will be reviewed at NIMH if you are submitting an application: a) for clinical treatment or services research in the mental health area; b) in response to an NIMH RFA; or c) that is a specialized mechanism such as a Center, Institutional Training, or Research Infrastructure. Otherwise, your application will be reviewed through a committee at the CSR. (There are exceptions.)

The NIMH Extramural Review Branch administers the NIMH Initial Review Group (IRG) which is composed of two standing committees for the review of mental health treatment interventions and services applications. They are the Interventions Research Review Committee (ITV) and the Services Research Review Committee (SRV). All other NIMH review committees are Special Emphasis Panels (SEPs). A SEP is a one-time meeting of a group of experts called in to review a specific group of applications or even a single application. The acronym for an NIMH SEP always begins with ZMH1. The meeting rosters for ITV, SRV, and the NIMH SEPs can be found on the NIH Scientific Review Group Roster page. Additional information about ITV and SRV may be found on the page entitled Description of the Scientific Areas Reviewed by Interventions Research Review Committee (ITV) and Services Research Review Committee (SRV).

The CSR Study Section Information page provides details about the CSR committees and rosters.

Persons using this online system should not contact members of advisory committees on any aspect of their grant applications. Instead, it would be appropriate to contact the scientific review administrator of the review committee listed on the meeting roster if there are questions about the peer review process.

If you have any questions about the peer review committees or their functions, please e-mail: jnoronha@mail.nih.gov.