Changes to the way the National Institutes of Health (NIH) evaluates and awards grants reduce the autonomy of institute- and center-led review panels and move primary evaluation to the Center for Scientific Review (CSR)[2]. The NIH has announced the centralization of review of all grant applications, contracts and negotiated collaborations, a move the agency says is intended to reduce bias, cost and increase efficiency[2]. The plan also introduces changes in which applications will be discussed in the negotiations: the commissions will vote on the division into the upper third (30-35%) of the discussed applications, the middle third marked as "competitive but not discussed" and the lower third as "non-competitive and not discussed"[3]. NIH has also updated the application forms and peer review rules, which will go into effect for submission deadlines starting on January 25, 2025, and modify the evaluation criteria and requirements for training grants[1]. Among the impacts were delays: NIH said no notices of application review meetings between January 22 and March 3, 2025, causing delays in decisions on new awards[4]. Government reports indicate that fewer new and competitive grants were awarded in 2025 compared to the 2020-2024 average and that policy changes (including multi-annual funding and temporary indirect cost rules) contributed to this decline[4].