NIH rolled out a policy around two years ago to enhance reproducibility of its supported research through rigor and transparency.  In a recent NIH blogpost, we were reminded that NIH offers a website of robust resources to support researchers, providing e-Learning modules, informative blog posts, reviewers guidance, and infographics.  In addition, the following institutes within NIH have provided trainings on rigor and reproducilbility:

• NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research has training resources for NIH investigators on how to rigorously develop and evaluate mixed methods research applications
• National Institute OF General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) and several other NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs) funded the development of training modules to enhance data reproducibility, many of which can be found within an online clearinghouse.
• NIH Office of Disease Prevention has methodological resources available for developing high-quality applications for clustered randomized clinical trials, including best practices for calculating sample sizes.

Another area of focus within the new "reproducibility" mandates includes the emphasis on scientific premise.  

"Scientific premise refers to the rigor of the prior research being cited as key support for the research question(s). For instance, a proposal might note prior studies had inadequate sample sizes. To help both applicants and reviewers describe and assess the rigor of the prior research cited as key support for the proposal, we plan to revise application instructions and review criteria to clarify the language."

If you need assistance developing these sections within your NIH grant proposal, contact OPD for proposal development assistance or editing.  We're happy to help!

Want an excuse to visit San Francisco?  Attend the next NIH Regional Seminar Oct. 17-18.  Event Website and Registration. Check out our prior post on the benefits of attending a NIH Regional Seminar HERE.