Principal investigators should take care to write their grant applications "clearly and succinctly," not only to help the reviewers but also because, if funded, the titles, abstracts, and statements of public health relevance are made publicly available, writes Sally Rockey in the director's column of the NIH Office of Extramural Research newsletter. "I encourage you to use language that best expresses the importance of your research for the portions of your application that will reach the wider community," Rockey says.
That same edition of the newsletter says that there will soon be improvements to summary statements. "NIH will begin requiring reviewers to include a paragraph in their written critiques to explain the factors that informed his or her overall impact score. This change will provide applicants with greater insight into how each reviewer assessed scientific merit of the grant application and determined his/her overall impact score," it says.