NASA announced plans Thursday to expand anonymous reviews of science proposals and support 10 doctoral researchers through Genesis Mission Fellowships. For scientists seeking NASA support, the changes address both how their ideas are judged and opportunities to work inside agency laboratories.
The announcement accompanied the White House’s Golden Age Summit in Washington. NASA says its new metascience initiative, essentially research into how science gets done, will examine scientific practices within its Science Mission Directorate, with the aim of improving reliability, transparency and productivity.
Anonymous review already has roots
The useful context is that NASA isn't introducing anonymous review from scratch. Its existing guidance says most programs in its main research solicitation already use dual anonymous peer review: applicants don't know their reviewers, and reviewers aren't told the applicants’ identities until proposals have been evaluated and rated.
That doesn't mean qualifications disappear. Reviewers first assess the proposed science, then examine a separate document describing the team's expertise and resources. NASA also acknowledges that specialists can sometimes guess an author's identity. The goal is to keep reputations and institutions from dominating the discussion, rather than guarantee perfect secrecy.
Fellowship details are still limited
NASA says its Genesis fellows will combine training in what it calls “super intelligence” with science or engineering, conduct research at NASA laboratories and work on agency mission areas. The fellowships will draw on its existing Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology program.
The release doesn't specify a NASA fellowship budget, application deadline or start date, nor does it identify which additional programs will adopt anonymous review. Those are the next details to watch. What evidence would convince you that a new review process is giving better ideas a fairer chance?
Sources
- 1.NASA Announces Bold Science Initiatives for America’s Golden Age Summit · NASA
- 2.Dual Anonymous Peer Review (DAPR) · NASA Science
Reported by the WattsUpNext desk from the sources linked below. Spot an error? Tell us at corrections@wattsupnext.com.
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