How did the NIH make the decision to shorten applications?
The NIH grant application is among the longest that is used by funding agencies and foundations worldwide. During the diagnostic phase of the peer review self-study, the overwhelming opinion from the working groups was that a significant reduction in page numbers is necessary to achieve the desired enhancements, to a page limit somewhere between 7 and 15 pages. The working groups considered the response to an NIH-issued RFI, which showed that 70% of all respondents preferred that applications be shorter than 25 pages. The majority of the respondents did not believe that a shorter application would compromise their ability to present scientific ideas (68% responded that ideas could be communicated equally well comparing 25 to 15 pages, and 19% indicated that shorter applications would enhance communication). Respondents also indicated that a shortened application would take either the same (27 percent) or less (50 percent) time to prepare. Thus, for over three quarters of those respondi
