Policy on IC Tenure Review Committees

Membership of IC Tenure Review Committees

All NIH Tenure Review Committees, including Institute or Center (IC) committees, must be composed entirely of Federal Employees who are NIH Senior Investigators or the equivalent at another Federal Government agency (e.g., FDA, CDC, EPA, NIST). Per the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), since tenure review committees provide consensus advice on a government matter and they are not FACA-vetted committees (unlike the Boards of Scientific Counselors), all members, including ad hoc participants, must be Federal Employees. The Deputy Director for Intramural Research (DDIR) encourages IC Tenure Review Committees to invite ad hoc participants who are Senior Investigators in another IC when the tenure candidate’s area of expertise is not well covered by the IC. However, Senior Investigators from a different IC should not be sitting members (vs ad hoc reviewers for a given case) of the tenure review committee of an IC which is not their own.

Documents to Be Reviewed By the IC Tenure Review Committee

For Investigators proposed for tenure, the IC Tenure Review Committee must review, at minimum, all the principal documents that are required for review by the NIH Central Tenure Committee (CTC), as defined in the OIR's Tenure Appointment Checklist: curriculum vitae, bibliography, DEIA statement, all Site Visit and BSC reviews during the tenure-track period, accounting of resources (budget, personnel, space) available to the candidate from beginning of the tenure track to date, list of mentees throughout the tenure track with information required by the CTC and letters of reference. The latter should be solicited by the IC Tenure Review Committee. The IC Tenure Review Committee may review more than the above, such as reprints, and may also invite the candidate to give a seminar for their evaluation.