Resources & FAQs

We aim to assign approximately 4-5 submissions to each expert reviewer. We expect each submission will take approximately 30-40 minutes to review, for approximately 3 hours total of review. As you progress and get more familiar with the rubric and where information is located on the final report, this amount of time could decrease.

Your reviews will happen independently using Carrot’s online scoring platform, so you can schedule your review time as you need during the review period.

Log-in credentials were sent to you from the NIH Build UP Trust Challenge email on Thursday, August 21. Please check your spam folder and add questions@builduptrust.org to your safe senders list. If you cannot locate the email in your folders, please email us and we will resend your credentials.

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Expert reviewers will have the opportunity to declare a COI on the platform. If there is a conflict and you select YES, the submission you are reviewing will automatically be switched out with a new submission.  

We ask that you recuse yourself from evaluating submissions from any organizations for which your family members or close friends serve as employees, investors, advisors, or board members, as well as organizations that you have awarded funding.

Given the nature of this work, we expect that you will be familiar with some of the participants. Being familiar with a participant’s work or knowing the team members in a professional context may not necessarily constitute a conflict of interest – in fact, we value your perspectives as experts in this sector with wide networks. If you are not sure if you have a COI, or feel that you cannot evaluate a proposal objectively, please email us and we will address any concerns. 

Each submission will be reviewed by five Expert Panel reviewers, and the NIH Build UP Trust Challenge team will consider this feedback as awardees are selected. Your scores and feedback will not be shared publicly or with participants.

We ask that expert reviewers base their scores and feedback on the information provided within the submission, and should not seek out additional information.

“Overall impression” is based on your general impression of the proposed solution. This score is only used in the unlikely event of the need for a tiebreaker – and this score is reflected in the thousandth place of the total score.

We kindly ask that you do not download or print any of the materials as you complete review. Please review and score submissions within Carrot’s platform. However, if you do choose to print your assigned submissions physically or to PDF so you can complete your review offline, remember to keep all submission data confidential and shred any printed materials once your review is complete. All scores and feedback need to be entered into the online platform by the September 2nd deadline.

The four (4) criteria in the scoring rubric do not translate directly to specific questions asked of participants because we want reviewers to evaluate the final report holistically. There may also be a submission where you do not find any of the information you need in the provided answers, and that outcome should affect your score for that specific submission. The scoring rubric was available to participants on both the website and online submission form that participants used to submit their final report, so we expect that participants wrote their answers with this rubric in mind.

Of the 20 selected Phase II participants, 17 have moved forward and submitted a final report. Each Phase II participant had one year to implement their proposed solution and share their results.

Your role as an expert reviewer is crucial, not only because of your subject matter expertise but for the breadth and depth of your experience. All submissions have gone through an administrative review to determine whether they met minimum requirements.

Informed by your scores and feedback, the NIH team will make a final recommendation and determination of the up to four up to $200,000 awards.

Awards will be selected and announced in November 2025. Please note: NIH Build UP Trust Challenge prize funds are not restricted, and finalists and awardees may use the prize funds as they see fit.  

You were carefully selected to be part of the Expert Panel for this competition because of your knowledge and experience. If there are aspects of the answers that are outside your realm of expertise, rest assured that each eligible submission that passed administrative review will be evaluated by four other expert reviewers. We believe that the diverse collective knowledge and experience of the entire Expert Panel will deliver a fair assessment to all eligible submissions.

If you have questions regarding implicit bias, we encourage you to utilize the guide “Combatting implicit bias and stereotypes,” provided by the HHS Think Cultural Health Resource Library.

After the evaluation process is complete and all awards have been announced in November 2025, you are welcome to contact any organizations. Please contact us so that we can help facilitate that connection.

Yes, you are welcome to contact any organizations after the evaluation process is complete and awards have been announced in November 2025. Please contact us so that we can help facilitate that connection.

Please email us these comments and feedback directly.

Please keep all final report content confidential.  

We recommend using Google Chrome, as it is the browser that works best with our platform.

Please do not contact the participant or seek out additional information on the participants.

We ask that you carefully read the submissions and provide meaningful feedback.

Our team is available to provide any technical support you may need ahead of the deadline – please email questions@builduptrust.org with any questions.