The National Institutes of Health, Center for Scientific Review, in collaboration with the ACD Diversity Working Group Subcommittee on Peer Review, has announced two America COMPETES Act Challenges. These contests solicit input from the scientific community and other stakeholders to aid our efforts to address the problem of racial disparities in NIH R01 grant funding. 

New Methods to Detect Bias in Peer Review:  Contestants are asked to submit their ideas for strategies to detect possible bias in the NIH peer review process. Submissions can include approaches, strategies, methodologies, and/or measures that would be sensitive to detecting bias among reviewers due to gender, race/ethnicity, institutional affiliation, area of science, and amount of research experience.  First Place ($10,000) and Second Place ($5,000) prizes will be awarded in two categories, best empirically based idea and most creative idea.

Strategies to Strengthen Fairness and Impartiality in Peer Review: Contestants are asked to submit ideas for reviewer training methods aimed at enhancing fairness and impartiality in NIH peer review. The submission does not require full development of training materials.  However, ideas should be provided in sufficient detail to assess their ability to address fairness and impartiality in review with regards to gender, race/ethnicity, institutional affiliation, area of science, and amount of research experience. First Place ($10,000) and Second Place ($5,000) prizes will be awarded for the best overall idea.

The contest closes June 30, 2014 and winners will be announced September 2, 2014.  Details regarding the rules and submission procedures for these two Challenges can be found on the CSR Challenge website or at www.challenge.gov. We appreciate your assistance in sharing this announcement with your colleagues.