Scientific Reviewer

Axle • Bethesda, MD

13h • Onsite

About The Position

Axle is seeking a Scientific Reviewer to support the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Center for Scientific Review (CSR) in Bethesda, Maryland. The role provides scientific and operational services for planning, coordinating, conducting, and documenting NIH peer review activities in accordance with NIH and CSR policies, procedures, guidance, and review schedules. The contractor collaborates with Scientific Review Officers (SROs), CSR leadership, reviewers, and review support staff to complete assigned work accurately and on time.

The position supports peer review of NIH grant and cooperative agreement applications and contract proposals. Work includes assessing applications’ scientific content and relevance, identifying administrative and scientific issues, matching reviewers to applications, managing reviewer recruitment and conflicts of interest, obtaining and evaluating critiques, and preparing preliminary and final summary statements and meeting documentation. The Scientific Reviewer also maintains peer review data, supports committee management activities, and may mentor and train staff and reviewers. Deliverables must be clear, objective, accurate, professional, and compliant with NIH policies, CSR best practices, federal regulations, ethics, and confidentiality requirements. Deficient deliverables must be corrected and resubmitted at the Government’s direction.

Responsibilities

• Support planning, coordination, conduct, and documentation of NIH scientific peer review activities.
• Identify administrative and scientific issues in grant applications and contract proposals, including their hypotheses and rationale.
• Review application content and assess its relevance to the scientific interests of the Institute.
• Identify areas of expertise needed for review panels, search databases and other resources for potential reviewers, and recommend reviewers based on their expertise and the science under review.
• Make initial application assignment determinations and resolve assignment conflicts based on the Institute’s scientific interests.
• Perform administrative reviews of research grant applications and identify deficiencies that must be addressed before review.
• Assess reviewers and applications for potential conflicts of interest, consulting program staff and examining key personnel, institutional affiliations, and letters of support as needed.
• Coordinate reviewer recruitment and training, and assign applications to reviewers.
• Determine the appropriate meeting format, including face-to-face, teleconference, or Internet-Assisted meetings.
• Obtain and coordinate written critiques from expert reviewers and evaluate incoming reviews for completeness and accuracy.
• Ensure high-quality written reviews are obtained and perform critique quality control.
• Prepare preliminary drafts of summary statements; review and synthesize comments; and incorporate appropriate reviewer comments into final documents.
• Compile and edit summary statements and technical evaluation reports into high-quality documents that accurately reflect key evaluation factors.
• Attend peer review meetings, capture committee deliberations, take notes, and prepare final documentation of meeting proceedings.
• Validate and enter information into databases and work with staff to enter reviewer data into the Committee Management system and prepare peer review rosters.
• Serve as an internal authoritative source of information on application receipt, referral, and grants management policies and procedures.
• Provide critical review of literature and evaluate research concepts, proposals, protocols, and reports.
• Apply scientific knowledge related to the Institute’s mission and the NIH peer review process to evaluate research.
• Mentor and train staff on scientific peer review processes and procedures.
• Assess organizational training needs and develop training programs, materials, job aids, and instructions to improve peer review accuracy and performance.
• Mentor and coach peer reviewers in the performance of reviews.
• Deliver work accurately, professionally, and within established requirements and deadlines, maintaining effective collaboration and strict ethics and confidentiality.

Benefits

• 100% medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees
• Paid time off and paid holidays
• 401(k) match up to 5%
• Educational benefits for career growth
• Employee referral bonus
• Flexible spending accounts for healthcare (FSA), dependent care (DCAP), and transportation (TRN)
• Parking reimbursement account (PRK)

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Education Level: No Education Listed