42 U.S.C. § 289a — Peer review requirements

(a) Peer review of applications. The Secretary, acting through the Director of NIH, must require by regulation appropriate technical and scientific peer review of (A) applications for grants and cooperative agreements under this chapter for biomedical and behavioral research, and (B) applications for biomedical and behavioral research and development contracts administered through NIH. These regulations must require that review to be done, to the extent practical, consistent with the peer-review system that was already being used, as of November 20, 1985, for biomedical and behavioral research grants under this chapter, and, to the extent practical, by the same technical and scientific peer review groups that were doing that review on or before that date. The regulations must also allow this review to be conducted by groups appointed under sections 282(b)(16) and 284(c)(3) of this title. (b) Periodic review of NIH's own research. The Director of NIH must set up procedures for periodically reviewing, technically and scientifically, the research NIH conducts itself. These procedures must require that the group doing the review get a written description of the research being reviewed, and that the group share that description and its review results with the advisory council of the relevant national research institute. The regulations must allow this review to be conducted by groups appointed under sections 282(b)(6) and 284(c)(3) of this title. (c) Checking compliance on women and minorities in clinical research. When a clinical-research proposal goes through the peer review this section requires, that review (including the very first look at the proposal) must, with one exception, include checking the proposal's technical and scientific merit against the requirements of section 289a–2 of this title, on including women and minority groups as subjects. This checking requirement does not apply to a clinical-research proposal that section 289a–2(b) of this title exempts from the inclusion requirement in section 289a–2(a).