Rigor and Reproducibility One Year Later: How Has the Biomedical Community Responded?

Scientific Reproducibility and Social Responsibility This session focuses on the research community’s response to the implementation of the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Rigor and Reproducibility guidelines, which went into effect on January 25, 2016. The NIH guidelines represent fundamental changes to the grant application and review process in four areas: the scientific premise of the proposed research; rigorous experimental design for robust and unbiased results; consideration of relevant biological variables such as sex and age; and authentication of key biological resources. The session includes feedback from both NIH and the research community about lessons learned in the first year of the guidelines, and where the research community still needs to address best practices, policies, and standards to ensure optimal compliance going forward. The panel will discuss how successful implementation of the guidelines should lead to increased rates of reproducibility and dramatic returns on research funding investments.