AERA joined more than 125 organizations in the Coalition to Promote Research earlier this month to express support for the peer-review process at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The letters to members of the House of Representatives and the Senate are in response to recent congressional concerns about NIH’s funding decisions.
In the letter, the signatories noted that “the ongoing targeting of specific grants produces a chilling effect across the entire scientific community. These attacks inhibit the very scientific progress the critics claim to support.”
While acknowledging Congress’s essential oversight role in relation to NIH, the letter goes on to state: “It is also essential that the scientific process determine project selection. We encourage Congress to resist efforts to undermine the NIH and its peer-review process. It is not in the best interest of the American public.”