National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Jay Bhattacharya, M.D., has announced the appointment of Raymond H. Jacobson, Ph.D., as director of the NIH Center for Scientific Review (CSR). The center oversees the fair, independent, and expert evaluation of tens of thousands of grant applications submitted to NIH each year. Dr. Jacobson will assume his role on June 14, 2026.
Dr. Bhattacharya stated that Dr. Jacobson’s leadership would strengthen NIH’s centralized peer review system, ensuring that the first level of review remains rigorous, fair, and transparent. He emphasized that this work is essential to supporting NIH’s mission of funding the most scientifically meritorious research.
Prior to this appointment, Dr. Jacobson served as CSR’s acting director following the retirement of Dr. Bruce Reed. He also held the role of Acting Deputy Director of the NIH Office of Extramural Research in 2025, where he advanced efforts to reduce administrative burden and address applicant challenges. In December 2024, he became director of CSR’s Division of Receipt and Referral, leading initiatives to simplify application receipt and referral policies.
Dr. Jacobson joined CSR in 2009 as a scientific review officer in the Bioengineering and Sciences Technologies Integrated Review Group (IRG). He later became chief of the Biological Chemistry and Macromolecular Biophysics IRG in 2015, and in 2020 was appointed director of CSR’s Division of Basic and Integrated Biological Sciences.
He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Oregon, Eugene, and completed postdoctoral training at the University of California, Berkeley, where he received both a Miller Institute Fellowship and a Burroughs Wellcome Career Award. Before joining CSR, he was an assistant professor at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, focusing on the structural and biophysical aspects of eukaryotic RNA polymerase II transcription machinery.
Dr. Bhattacharya expressed appreciation for Dr. Jacobson and his predecessor, Dr. Reed, noting that their leadership during NIH’s transition to a centralized peer review system had improved efficiency, competition, and transparency while strengthening review processes.
Click here to read the original press release.
