07-15. Rehabilitation Research and Development Service Scientific Merit Review Board; Notice of Meeting

The Department of Veterans Affairs gives notice under Public Law 92-463 (Federal Advisory Committee Act) that a meeting of the Rehabilitation Research and Development Service Scientific Merit Review Board will be held on March 5-8, 2007, at the Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel, Arlington, VA. The sessions are scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. and end at 5:30 p.m. each day.

The purpose of the Board is to review rehabilitation research and development applications for scientific and technical merit and to make recommendations to the Director, Rehabilitation Research and Development Service, regarding their funding.

The meeting will be open to the public for the March 5 and March 7, 2007 sessions from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. for the discussion of administrative matters, the general status of the program and the administrative details of the review process. The meeting will be closed on March 5 and 7, 2007 from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and on March 6 and 8, 2007 from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. for the Board's review of research and development applications.

The Board's review of applications involves oral comments, discussion of site visits, staff and consultant critiques of proposed research protocols, and similar analytical documents that necessitate the consideration of the personal qualifications, performance and competence of individual research investigators. Disclosure of such information would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Disclosure would also reveal research proposals and research underway which could lead to the loss of these projects to third parties and thereby frustrate future agency research efforts.

Thus, the closing is in accordance with 5 U.S.C. 552b(c)(6), and (c)(9)(B) and the determination of the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs under Section 10(d) of Public Law 92-463 as amended by Section 5(c) of Public Law 94-409.

Those who plan to attend the open sessions should contact Dr. Denise Burton, Designated Federal Officer, Portfolio Manager, Rehabilitation Research and Development Service (122P), Department of Veterans Affairs, 810 Vermont Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20420, at [phone].

Dated: December 27, 2006.

By Direction of the Secretary.

E. Philip Riggin,

Committee Management Officer.