Reviewer Guidance

What's Changing

NIH has implemented revised fellowship review criteria, effective for application receipt dates on or after January 25, 2025. The revised criteria are meant to:

• Better focus reviewer attention on three key assessments: the fellowship candidate's preparedness and potential, research training plan, and commitment to the candidate
• Ensure a broad range of candidates and research training contexts can be recognized as meritorious by clarifying and simplifying the language in the application and review criteria
• Emphasize the commitment to the candidate without undue consideration of sponsor and institutional reputation

The revised criteria reorganize the five regulatory criteria (formerly, Fellowship Applicant; Sponsors, Collaborators, and Consultants; Research Training Plan; Training Potential; Institutional environment and Commitment to Training) into three (currently, Candidate's Preparedness and Potential; Research Training Plan; Commitment to Candidate). No changes have been made to the Additional Review Criteria or Additional Review Considerations. 

The PHS Fellowship Supplemental Form has also been updated to better align the fellowship application with the revised review criteria. Among other changes, academic grades will no longer be a component of fellowship applications; instead, the candidate, sponsor and referees may provide a variety of information for the review panel to determine the candidate’s preparedness and potential.

Resources for Reviewers

• Consolidated List of Reviewer Documents

This page provides guidance for reviewers on the assessment of specific review elements as well as review meeting associated tasks.