The Brain Health Institute (BHI) and the Rutgers Addiction Research Center (RARC) are pleased to announce the mock grant review program at Rutgers University. The primary objective of this program is to increase the success of grant proposals submitted to NIH and other granting agencies by Rutgers investigators connected to the BHI and/or the RARC. 

  1. Step 1: Send a title plus an abstract or short description to Paul Manowitz, Ph.D., RARC Chair of Special Programs (manowitz@rwjms.rutgers.edu; with CC to rarc@bhi.rutgers.edu). This information will be used to select reviewers.  If you like, you may accompany this information with a suggested reviewer(s) to be included in the review committee. As a requirement, all reviewers must have participated as members of NIH study sections. This can be submitted any time during this academic year.
  • Step 2. Submit your application as a SINGLE PDF file to Paul Manowitz (manowitz@rwjms.rutgers.edu; with CC to rarc@bhi.rutgers.edu) . You should submit Specific Aims and Research Strategy for review, formatted according to NIH style application guidelines and including a cover sheet (see below). The proposal should be single-spaced and use font/size Arial 11 with 0.5 inch page margins, combined into one PDF document (13 pages for R01 and 7 pages for R21). If you are re-submitting a previously submitted grant, please include the NIH summary statement with your proposed resubmission, as well as your Introduction to the Resubmission. You may not make substantive changes once the applications have been circulated to the mock grant reviewers. The RARC and reviewers will observe confidentiality, and only the panel will access your grant information.

Please leave enough time to allow the review process to occur before your grant submission’s due date to the granting agency. The mock grant review process may take appromately two weeks. It is recommended that you allow one month between the meeting of the mock grant reviewers and your submission of the application.

  • Each submission will be reviewed by 2-3 Rutgers reviewers who will provide specific written comments as well as a 15 min zoom recording of their “mock study section” discussion. During these 15 minutes the three reviewers will discuss your application as they would during study section and give it a final “impact score”. All of the 15 minutes will be recorded and shared with you (along with the written comments) via email. If you would like further feeback, it can be arranged to then have you join the zoom call for an interactive discussion with the reviewers, or you may reach out to the reviewers to schedule another time to meet to discuss your application.

Download the full announcement, cover sheet, & list of reviewers: Mock Grant Review Proposal PDF.

Please contact rarc@bhi.rutgers.edu with any questions.

Danielle Dick, Ph.D.
Director, Rutgers Addiction Research Center
Chair, Motivational & Affective Neuroscience Focus Area Working Group
Brain Health Institute

Zhiping Pang, M.D., Ph.D.
Vice Chair, Motivational & Affective Neuroscience Focus Area Working Group
Brain Health Institute