In this newsletter you will find a link to a form to volunteer for service on an NIH Study Section. I encourage you to consider submitting your name. It is important for our field to have strong representation on NIH study sections. Funding is an essential element in advancing sleep and circadian research, and without study section members who understand sleep research, basic and clinical, even great proposals from our colleagues have much lower chances of success. A common practice of many serving on study sections is to look for minor deficiencies in proposals to justify lowering their priority scores. Without other members who can offer counter arguments and advocate for the best science, the efforts to lower scores will prevail. Serving on a study section is considerable work, but it is also rewarding. It is a chance to meet new colleagues and be educated in interesting areas outside of your own specialty and to learn about new methods and technologies that you might find useful in your own work. For those of you who are currently on or in the past have been on study sections, the SRS thanks you for your service to our field.
Best,
H. Craig Heller, PhD
SRS President
