To be considered as a “peer reviewed, funded project,” the responsible funding agency or organization should meet the general NIH standards of peer review and funding. These include meeting three criteria: (1) a peer review system which uses primarily external reviewers and is free of conflict-of-interest; (2) a ranking or rating system in the review process based on the scientific merit of the proposed research; and (3) a funding system based primarily on the peer review ranking or rating of the research applications
