NIH News and Updates
NIH Announces New Scoring Procedures for Evaluation of Research Applications Received for Potential FY2010 Funding (Dec 2008)
Enhanced Review Criteria for Evaluation of Research Applications Received for Potential FY2010 Funding (Dec 2008)
Tips resulting from very-recent experience on use of the Adobe-based forms for NIH submissions:
- Adobe transition notices: Availability of forms (Dec 2008); Transition clarification (Nov 2008); and Transition schedule (Sept 2008).
- Fatal error messages ensue if applicants use PureEdge forms for grant mechanisms that already have transitioned. As long as the closing date has not occurred, applicants should re-enter their application onto the proper Adobe-based forms; this includes those applicants who have served on Study Section, who have an extended period to submit, who may receive a fatal error message stating that their funding opportunity closing date has expired although it has not.
- As long as all of their versions of Adobe are compatible with the Grants.gov versions, applicants may use any of their Adobe versions, even though there may be several types located on different computers. For purposes of Grants.gov submissions, Adobe compatibility is a must.
- NIH has begun to post the Adobe-based packages for those announcements, since September 2008, that were published without form or instruction attachments. NIH expects to post all by mid-December.
NIH is focussing ever more strongly on its policy to encourage independent research careers. Investigators within 10 years of their terminal degree may classify themselves not only as new investigators, not having received primary research funding, but as Early Stage Investigators whose grant applications will be clustered among other like applications and whose classification will be taken into account during peer review. NIH aims to establish parity between the success fate of research funding to new investigators as to established ones.
eRA Alert: E-mail addresses are not appearing on NIH Notices of Award. On October 28, 2008 eRA Commons alerted the research community of a bug on the NIH Notice of Award that doesn’t print the institutional email address associated with the application and consequently, prevents the award announcement from going out to that address. Not to worry: investigators still receive an email announcement of their award. All emails are still being sent on the Issue Date to the investigator’s email as well as to the institution’s policy email. And, NoAs continue to be posted on the eRA Commons. Further, a query is available in the Commons that will retrieve a list of Notices of Award by institution. The Commons expects to have the bug fixed by January 16, 2009 so that email addresses will appear again on Notices of Award as of that date. For further information, the best way to contact the Commons is by email to helpdesk@od.nih.gov, or call eRA Helpdesk at 301-402-7469.
The NIH Loan Repayment Program application cycle opened Sept 1, 2008 for extramural (due Dec 3) and intramural (due May 1, 2009) for new repayment applications. These awards can have a positive impact on the careers of biomedical and behavioral researchers, often making the difference in pursuing a research career.
BENEFITS: New extramural LRP contracts for Clinical Research, Pediatric Research, Health Disparities Research, Contraception and Infertility Research, and Clinical Research for Individuals from Disadvantaged Backgrounds are awarded for two-year periods and repay up to $35,000 of qualified educational debt annually. An NIH grant or other NIH funding is not required to apply for or participate in the LRP.
ELIGIBILITY: Applicants must possess a doctoral-level degree (except for the Contraception and Infertility Research LRP); be a U.S. citizen, national, or permanent resident; devote 20 hours or more per week to conducting qualified research funded by a university, domestic nonprofit organization, or federal, state, or local government entity; and have qualified educational loan debt equal to or exceeding 20 percent of their institutional base salary.
Revised NIH Policy on Resubmissions….Attempts to resubmit a grant application that has been unsuccessful on its first try and first resubmission will no longer be allowed, according to new policy.
As NIH gears up to convert all electronic applications to Adobe format, it has provided a test page where investigators may check whether their current versions of Adobe meet the requirements. Note that it is NOT recommended to obtain Adobe from the Adobe website in the usual way. Go to Grants.gov Adobe version test to check your file formats and to download the proper Adobe version configured for NIH purposes.
Exceptionally innovative, high risk, original and/or unconventional research projects that have the potential to profoundly impact a broad area of biomedical or behavioral research are supported under the Transformative R01 Program, a new program of the NIH Roadmap. According to the funding announcement, the broad topics to be highlighted include: Understanding and Incenting Behavior Change; 3-D Tissue Models; Functional Variation in Mitochondria;Transition from Acute to Chronic Pain; Formulation of Novel Protein Capture Reagents; and Evidence for Pharmacogenomics Clinical Studies.
DHHS continues to operate on a continuing resolution (CR) [Public Law 110-329 Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance, and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2009] that extends through March 6, 2009. The CR applies the terms of the FY 2008 appropriations for the period covered by the CR. Until the final FY 2009 appropriation is enacted, NIH will issue non-competing research grant awards at a level below that indicated on the most recent Notice of Award (generally up to 90% of the previously committed level). This is consistent with previous three years’ practice. Resources for FY 2009.
Notice of Legislative Mandates in Effect for FY 2008 (Feb 2008)
Salary Limitation on Grants, Cooperative Agreements, and Contracts (Jan 2008)
NIH Public Access Policy and related clarifications of policy (Jan, Sept 2008)
Revised PHS 2271, PHS 3734, and HHS 568 Forms Now Available (Jan 2008)
Revised PHS 398 (DHHS Public Health Service Grant Application) Now Available (Jan 2008)
Modified Application Submission, Referral and Review for Appointed NIH Study Section Members (Jan 2008)
NIH Policy on Late Submission of Grant Applications (Jan 2008)
