As we have shown above, outstanding and excellent applications can get unfundable percentiles. A single priority score can give a range of percentile rankings across different study sections because it competes only with other reviewed applications within that study section during a three-cycle period. Whether a given percentile falls within the payline differs among NIH institutes and within an institute for different fiscal years. Illustrating how scores can improve after an application is revised, Figure 3 gives an example of priority scores and percentiles for five applications before and after they were revised and resubmitted. The take home message for applicants with high-quality but unfundable applications is to talk with their program officer to seek advice.
Persistence often pays off.
Applicants who read reviewers' comments carefully and address them point by point, often succeed on the next try.