[Dictionary] Pending IRG Review

Pending IRG Review is the eRA Commons application status (status code 17) shown for an NIH grant application that has not yet been assigned to a later phase of NIH's review process — in practice, it signals the application is waiting for evaluation by its assigned Initial Review Group (IRG), the panel of scientific peer reviewers, also called a study section when it refers to a chartered (standing) group, that scores the application for scientific and technical merit. It is one of a series of numbered phase/status codes eRA Commons uses to track an application's progress from receipt through award or decline, and it displays on an application's own status screen and on the Pending Review portfolio view used by NIH program and review staff. Per NIH's own eRA Commons help documentation, applications carry this status when they have "not been assigned to another phase" for the relevant fiscal year window — it is a default/waiting state rather than a milestone the application actively reaches. Seeing this status does not mean an application has been approved, rejected, or even fully scheduled for a specific review meeting yet — it means no decision has been recorded and the application is somewhere in the pipeline between receipt and its Initial Review Group's evaluation, which could mean rosters and meeting logistics are still being finalized. Once the IRG actually meets and evaluates the application, NIH's next-level outputs are a priority (impact) score and a written summary statement; CASRAI's NIH Study Section entry covers how that scoring and the subsequent Institute/Center advisory-council review fit into NIH's overall two-tier review structure. Examples A PI checks their eRA Commons Status screen two months after their R01 application's receipt deadline and sees "Pending IRG Review" — this tells them the application has not yet gone through its scheduled study section meeting, but not the specific meeting date, which is typically confirmed separately through the assigned Scientific Review Officer or the study section roster listing. A sponsored programs office monitoring a portfolio of submitted applications for annual reporting purposes uses this status, alongside other eRA Commons phase codes, to distinguish applications still awaiting initial scientific review from those that have already been scored and are awaiting Institute/Center council-level funding decisions. Counter-examples "Pending IRG Review" is not the same as "Council Review Pending." The former means the application has not yet had its Initial Review Group (study section) merit review; the latter means merit review is already complete and the application is instead awaiting the second-tier Institute/Center advisory council's programmatic review — a materially later stage in NIH's dual review structure. The status is not a rejection or a hold placed on the application for cause. It is the routine default state for any application that has not yet progressed past initial review, and the large majority of on-time applications pass through it as a matter of course. A study section itself is not the same thing as this status code. "IRG" here refers to the reviewing body (see CASRAI's NIH Study Section entry for what that body is and how applications are assigned to one); "Pending IRG Review" is the tracking label eRA Commons applies to an application while it waits on that body's action. References National Institutes of Health, eRA Commons Program and Portfolio Management help documentation, "Pending Review" (era.nih.gov/erahelp/PMM/Content/Phases/Pending_Review.htm) — defines application status code 17. National Institute of Mental Health, "Step 3 – Application Assignment and Review Process" — describes Integrated Review Groups/Initial Review Groups as clusters of related standing Review Committees. See also CASRAI's NIH Study Section entry for the full peer-review and dual-review-tier structure this status sits within.