Attachment 4- Sample Letters to Applicants

Attachment 4: Sample Letters to Applicants

Sample Acceptance Letter

I am pleased to inform you that you have been accepted for participation in the Early Career Reviewer (ECR) program at the Center for Scientific Review (CSR), National Institute of Health (www.csr.nih.gov/ECR). Your name and areas of expertise will be added to our list of eligible reviewers. As Scientific Reviewer Officers (SRO) assemble study sections, they can go to the ECR list to find reviewers with expertise in areas relevant to the applications they review. They also check for recent publications and grant submissions through NIH and institutional websites.

For each review round, SROs may select one ECR to participate in each study section they conduct. If selected for consideration, you will be contacted directly by the SRO to further discuss your appropriateness for study section participation. Your inclusion in a review panel will be up to the judgment of the SRO. Therefore, it is important that you continue to strengthen your program of research, publish your work, and keep your information up to date. If chosen to review, you will be limited to two meetings, no more than one per year, beginning with the first review panel meeting you attend.

I encourage you to visit the CSR website at http://www.csr.nih.gov to learn more about the review process. The tab labeled Reviewer Resources will provide you with detailed information regarding review activities at CSR.

Thank you again for your interest in the ECR program. We look forward to having you join the review process.

Karyl B. Swartz, Ph.D.

Director, Division of AIDS, Behavioral and Population Sciences

Center for Scientific Review| National Institutes of Health | U.S. DHHS
6701 Rockledge Drive, Room 2218 MSC 7890, Bethesda, MD 20892-7766
Office: 301-435-1883 |Fax: 301-480-2067| swartzkb@csr.nih.gov

Sample Letter to Applicant Not Accepted

Thank you for your interest in the NIH Early Career Reviewer (ECR) Program. We received more than three thousand inquiries from talented new investigators. Each application was vetted by one or more experienced Scientific Review Officers. Unfortunately, we are unable to include you in the program at this time. We established criteria for admission to the program and selected individuals who currently had faculty appointments or the equivalent and were actively involved in research and publication of their work. Your biographical information shows that you are early in your professional career and not yet at the stage where you could benefit most from the ECR program. After you have had more time to establish your program of research and strengthen your publication record, please send us your updated CV so that we may reconsider you for the ECR program.

Thank you again for your interest in serving as an ECR. We wish you well with your career and look forward to hearing about your progress.

Sincerely,

Karyl B. Swartz, Ph.D.

Director, Division of AIDS, Behavioral and Population Sciences

Center for Scientific Review| National Institutes of Health | U.S. DHHS
6701 Rockledge Drive, Room 2218 MSC 7890, Bethesda, MD 20892-7766
Office: 301-435-1883 |Fax: 301-480-2067| swartzkb@csr.nih.gov