42 U.S.C. § 299c–1 — Peer review with respect to grants and contracts

(a) Requirement of review Every application for a grant, cooperative agreement, or contract under this subchapter must go through technical and scientific peer review. Each peer review group must report its findings and recommendations to the Director, in whatever form and manner the Director requires. (b) Approval as precondition of awards The Director cannot approve an application unless a peer review group set up under subsection (c) has recommended it for approval. (c) Establishment of peer review groups The Director must create as many technical and scientific peer review groups as needed. These groups don't have to follow the usual federal civil-service hiring rules, or the pay-classification rules under the General Schedule. Members must be people whose training or experience makes them highly qualified for the work. No more than 25 percent of any group's members can be federal officers or employees, and those federal members can't get extra pay for this work beyond their regular compensation. These groups can keep operating until a law says otherwise. Every member must, at minimum: (A) agree in writing to keep information they see through the group's work confidential, except for records and information that are already public; and (B) agree in writing to step aside from reviewing any specific application where they have a personal conflict of interest, or even the appearance of one — such as working for the applicant, owning its stock, or having any financial or other arrangement that could bias the review. (d) Authority for procedural adjustments in certain cases For applications where direct costs won't exceed $100,000, the Director can adjust the usual peer-review procedures — for example, to encourage new researchers to enter the field, to encourage clinical-practice-oriented or provider-based research, or for other purposes the Director finds appropriate. (e) Regulations The Director must issue formal regulations spelling out how peer review under this section will be conducted.