Need Scientific Peer-Review Services? Call AIBS!
Through its publications, meetings, and programs in support of research as well as education, AIBS has a long and distinguished history of serving the biological sciences community (our 60th anniversary is coming up in 2007). One part of this service of which we are especially proud is the Scientific Peer Advisory and Review Services division (AIBS SPARS), established in the 1960s to provide contracted peer review and related scientific services to external grantmaking bodies. We believe it is crucial that decision makers and policy leaders in society have access to the most reliable scientific information and advice available, and we act on this belief by serving as an independent, impartial peer review and scientific support organization.
Occupying about 10,000 square feet of office space in Reston Virginia, on the way to Dulles Airport, the 20 or more dedicated staff of AIBS SPARS convene peer review panels of outside experts and provide scientific management/program review, meeting facilitation, and IT services to a diverse client base, including agencies of the U.S. government, private foundations, and non-profit organizations. With decades of activities that have covered virtually every aspect of the biological sciences, AIBS SPARS's recent projects, listed here in SPARS News, include work for the National Council for Science and the Environment on wildlife habitat policy programs; for the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment on non-native species programs; for the Kansas University Medical Research Institute on cell and developmental biology programs; and for the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation on medical research programs.
Just last week, 10 -14 July 2006, the staff of AIBS SPARS and the staff of the AIBS Information Technology division completed a peer-review project of staggering dimensions on behalf of the United States Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC) and Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP): AIBS convened 20 peer review panels, involving more than 200 nationally recognized scientists, to review 646 proposals submitted by scientists in response to the Fiscal Year 2006 (FY06) Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program (PRMRP) Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) supplement. The federal research funding available through this supplement exceeds $50,000,000. The topic areas on which AIBS coordinated the peer review included:
Alcoholism research;
Antibiotic resistance;
Autism;
Autoimmune diseases such as Scleroderma and Sjogren's Syndrome;
Blood-related cancer research such as Leukemia, Lymphoma, and Multiple Myeloma;
Childhood asthma;
Chronic pain and fatigue research;
Childhood cancer research;
Diabetes research;
Drug abuse;
Duchenne's disease research;
Efficacy and subsequent clinical guidelines for the use of probenecid or other drugs to decrease dosage requirements;
Eye and vision research;
Fibromyalgia;
Human performance optimization;
Interstitial Cystitis Syndrome;
Kidney cancer research;
Lupus research;
Mental health resiliency;
Neurotoxicity of mefloquine;
Oseltamivir phosphate for the treatment of influenza;
Osteoporosis and bone-related diseases;
Paget's Disease;
Polycystic Kidney Disease;
Post Traumatic Stress Disorders;
Proteomics;
Pulmonary hypertension;
Radio-protectants;
Rehabilitation, face and/or eye injury;
Respiratory infection including associated respiratory disease;
Social work research.
Contact: AIBS SPARS Director Scott Glisson, sglisson@aibs.org