Who is responsible for implementation of the policy and guidelines?
The entire scientific community has a responsibility for implementing the policy as a partnership between research subjects, principal investigators, institutional review boards, peer review groups, NIH staff, NIH advisory councils, NIH Institute and Center Directors, and the NIH Director. Principal investigators should assess the theoretical and/or scientific linkages between sex/gender and race/ethnicity, and their topic of study in preparing their applications/proposals and conducting their research. Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) will review NIH protocols in terms of the inclusion policy as part of their review for protection of human subjects. NIH staff in the administrative review of applications, prior to peer review, will check to see that inclusion is addressed. Any grant application proposing clinical research that fails to address inclusion will be returned without review. Peer review groups will include a scientific and technical merit evaluation of the proposed inclusi
