Emergint provides support to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Center for Scientific Review (CSR). CSR is responsible for the receipt and processing of all NIH grant applications. In 2008, CSR received approximately 80,000 grant applications, on which one group of Emergint's staff provided vital support in receiving, tracking, monitoring, and reviewing incoming applications. A different group of Emergint staff provide logistical support for CSR's 25 scientifically specialized Integrated Review Groups (IRG), each charged with the review of grant applications involving their particular science. Another group of Emergint staff supports CSR and all of NIH with regard to payment of honoraria and expense reimbursement for external reviewers critical to the application review process across the breadth of NIH. These support staff work within the Scientific Review Evaluation Activity (SREA) Management and Service Center. Both IRG staff and SREA staff provide the following services:
- Coordinate or support travel arrangements for reviewers
- Support hotel meeting room reservations
- Ensure timely submission of payment to the thousands of external reviewers, each of whom typically serves on 3 application review panels a year
- Provide many other routine operational aspects of IRG operations
Additional support is provided to CSR in the areas of human resources, ethics support, technical writing, web content management, and office support.
When Emergint was awarded the CSR Grants Management and Administrative Support contract in 2005, we successfully retained and transitioned 96% of the existing, non-management staff within 15 days. We identified problems with timely reporting and adjusted management resources to ensure timely, accurate monthly reports.
In 2006, Emergint performed a Software Automation Assessment to provide CSR with enhanced automated processes for more efficient and timely application processing.